Dr. Mildred Jefferson, the first African-American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School and the first female surgical intern at Boston City Hospital, broke many race and gender barriers during her long career as a doctor. But it was when she turned to politics, emerging four decades ago as a eloquent leader of the antiabortion movement, that she began to win a following.
Despite Dr. Jefferson's ground breaking career, her passing is being ignored by most of the major media. I suppose it is because of the obvious. The major media have become so issue-driven that the achievement of Dr. Jefferson must be smothered under her politically incorrect belief that unborn children should not be murdered. Dr. Jefferson was a board member and three term president of National Right to Life. (I differ with Dr. Jefferson and National Right to Life on the proposed remedies to the abortion problem, but this is about her, not me.)As a physician, she remained true to her Hippocratic oath:
“I am at once a physician, a citizen, and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow this concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged, and the planned have the right to live,’’ she told [American Feminist] magazine.She must have been a very interesting person:
Dr. Jefferson broke many barriers yet didn’t have a driver’s license. “The story was that she was always thinking about so many interesting things that she wouldn’t be paying attention to the road,’’ [close friend Anne] Fox said.Thank you, Dr. Jefferson, for showing that everyone with the skill, intelligence and determination can become successful and serve society, despite artificial barriers such as race or sex. Thank you for your life of service.
Rest in peace.
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