National Right to Life Committee, Inc.
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Founded | April 1, 1967 |
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Founder | National Conference of Catholic Bishops |
EIN 52-0986195 | |
Location |
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Key people
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Carol Tobias, President James T. McHugh |
Revenue
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$5,717,028 (2012–2013) |
Expenses | $6,288,548 (2012–2013) |
Website | www |
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) is the oldest and the largest national pro-life organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide. The group works through legislation and education to work against induced abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide.
In 1966, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) asked James T. McHugh to begin observing trends in abortion reform. The National Right to Life Committee was founded in 1967, as the Right to Life League to coordinate its state campaigns under the auspices of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. To appeal to a more broad-based, nonsectarian movement, key Minnesota leaders proposed an organizational model that would separate the NRLC from the direct oversight of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and by early 1973 NRLC Director James T. McHugh and his executive assistant, Michael Taylor, proposed a different plan, facilitating the NRLC move toward its independence from the Catholic Church.
The national organization of National Right to Life is composed of several entities:
During 1966, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) asked Fr. James T. McHugh to begin observing trends in abortion reform. McHugh was director of the United States Catholic Conference (USCC) Family Life Bureau and would later become bishop of Camden and of Rockville Centre. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops asked McHugh during their April 1967 annual conference to organize the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and fund the established NRLC with $50,000 to "initiate and coordinate a program of information" with state affiliates that would alert stakeholders concerning the wave of legislation sweeping through state chambers that was intended to weaken restrictive abortion statutes."
The National Right to Life Committee was formalized during 1968, the same year that Pope Paul VI issued the encyclical Humanae vitae in response to the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control 1966 majority report supporting the use of artificial birth control by Roman Catholic couples.