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The group was founded in 1991 by Marjorie Dannenfelser. Its political action committee was founded by Rachel MacNair in 1993 as a response to the success of the pro-choice group EMILY's List, which was partly responsible for bringing about the 1992 "Year of the Woman" in which a significant number of women, all pro-choice, were elected to Congress. The group and the PAC were reorganized into one organization in 1997, and Dannenfelser is now president of the organization. Through October 2011, the SBA List has helped to elect 90 candidates to the United States House of Representatives, 12 to the United States Senate, and 13 to statewide offices in various states.[1]

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History

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Founding

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Marjorie Dannenfelser and a group of friends founded the Susan B. Anthony List as a pro-life women's group in 1991, and Dannenfelser began running it out of her home in Arlington, Virginia.[2][3][4] In March 1992, Rachel MacNair, head of Feminists for Life, watched a 60 Minutes television documentary profiling the Democratic pro-choice group EMILY's List, which was raising funds for pro-choice women candidates for Congress in the 1992 elections.[5][6] MacNair called her friends in the pro-life movement and proposed organizing a group to counter EMILY's List by providing early campaign funds to pro-life women candidates.[7][5] Led by FFL and MacNair, 15 pro-life groups formed an umbrella organization, the National Women's Coalition for Life (NWCL), which adopted a joint pro-life statement on April 3, 1992.[8] After many of the pro-choice women candidates won their races to create the "Year of the Woman", the Susan B. Anthony List PAC (political action committee) was formed on February 4, 1993 with the sponsorship of the NWCL[9][10][11] and with the purpose of endorsing and supporting women who held pro-life beliefs without regard to party affiliation;[12] this was a challenge EMILY's List's notion that the top female politicians were primarily pro-choice.[13][14][15][11]

Susan B. Anthony and early feminist connection

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Main article: Susan B. Anthony abortion dispute

The SBA List is named after the famous suffragist Susan B. Anthony,[16][17] who the SBA List says was "passionately pro-life".[18][19] This topic has been subject to a modern-day dispute about Anthony's views on abortion, with pro-choice activists "concerned that their heroine is being appropriated."[20] Anthony deplored abortion,[21] but Anthony scholar Ann D. Gordon and Anthony biographer Lynn Sherr say the Anthony quotes SBA List cites are misattributed or taken out of context. Gordon said that Anthony "never voiced an opinion about the sanctity of fetal life ... and she never voiced an opinion about using the power of the state to require that pregnancies be brought to term."[20]

The SBA List also cites other early feminists, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who wrote a letter saying, "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."[18] The SBA List notes that Victoria Woodhull, the first female presidential candidate in the U.S., told the Wheeling, West Virginia, Evening Standard newspaper in 1875 that "Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth."[18] The SBA List refers to a fourth early feminist, Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, who recorded in her diary her thoughts about Madame Restell, an early 19th-century abortionist: "The gross perversion and destruction of motherhood by the abortionist filled me with indignation, and awakened active antagonism. That the honorable term 'female physician' should be exclusively applied to those women who carried on this shocking trade seemed to me a horror. It was an utter degradation of what might and should become a noble position for women."[18] Finally, the organization also cites suffragist Alice Paul,[19] author of the original Equal Rights Amendment, who said, "Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women."[22]

Early activities and reorganization

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The early SBA List did not have much skill at furthering its mission. Founding board member Susan Gibbs, later the communications director for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, said, "None of us had political experience. None of us had PAC experience. We just had a passion for being pro-life."[23] In 1994, the SBA List PAC was successful in helping 8 of its 15 selected candidates gain office.[23] In 1996, only two challengers who were financially backed were elected, while five SBA-List-supported incumbents retained their positions; a disappointing election for the group.[5][23]

In 1997 the SBA List was reorganized into its current form as a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization with the PAC, known as the SBA List Candidate Fund, under the umbrella of the non-profit.[23][24] Jane Abraham became president and Dannenfelser held the position of Chairman of the Board.[25] The rules for endorsing and financially supporting candidates were tightened: in addition to the politician having to be female, she must have demonstrated a pro-life record (a simple declaration was not enough), and she must be seen as likely to win her race.[5] In 1998, the SBA List began backing male pro-life candidates running against pro-choice female candidates, endorsing three men in a pilot program.[23] One of the three gained office: the SBA List gave millionaire Republican Peter Fitzgerald $2,910 to assist him in his $12.3 million win over pro-choice Democrat Carol Moseley Braun in the race for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois.[26][27][28] The election year 2000 was another disappointment for the SBA List, with the group contributing $25,995 to endorsed pro-life candidates in contrast to the pro-choice candidates funded with $608,273 from the WISH List or with $20 million from the EMILY's List.[29][30] Abraham served as president from 1997 until 2006 when Dannenfelser became president.

REFERENCES
  1. ^ Lifelong problem-solver fights for the unborn
  2. ^ A feminine face for the antiabortion movement
  3. ^ Faces of the Christian Right
  4. ^ Called to a cause
  5. ^ a b c d Crisis. 15 (1). Brownson Institute: 30–33. 1997. The list has its origins in a 1992 CBS Sixty Minutes program on EMILY's List ("EMILY" stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast), which funds pro-abortion women candidates. After watching the program, Rachel MacNair, a pro-life Quaker and head of Feminists for Life, grabbed the telephone and began calling her friends in the pro-life movement. They all agreed: The time had come to counter EMILY's List with a pro-life version. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ^ Alexander, Herbert E.; Corrado, Anthony (1995). Financing the 1992 election. American political institutions and public policy. Vol. 9. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 212–213. ISBN 1563244373.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kennedy1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "National Women's Coalition for Life Statement of Commitment". Priests for Life. April 3, 1992. Retrieved August 23, 2011.
  9. ^ The Susan B. Anthony List was formed as a political action committee with the Federal Election Commission identification number C00280057.
  10. ^ "Feminist Launches Pro-Life Political Action Committee (PAC)". Life Communications. 3 (19). September 1993.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  11. ^ a b Zuckerman, Ed (1994). Almanac of federal PACs. Amward Publications. p. 354. ISBN 0939676117.
  12. ^ {{cite news |date=November 7, 1992 |work=The Washington Times |title=Feminist launches PAC for pro-lifers – Sees lopsided 'Year of the Woman' |location=San Francisco |quote=As a feminist who opposes abortion, Rachel MacNair could find only one flaw in Tuesday's 'Year of the Woman' electoral triumph. All the women newly elected to the House and Senate were pro-choice. That's no accident, she says, since women's fund-raising organizations like EMILY's List and WISH List refuse to support pro-life candidates.
  13. ^ Day, Christine L.; Hadley, Charles D. (2005). Women's PACs: abortion and elections. Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 21. ISBN 0131174487.
  14. ^ Stange, Mary Zeiss; Oyster, Carol K.; Sloan, Jane E. (2011). Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World. SAGE. p. 474. ISBN 978-1412976855.
  15. ^ "Feminist Launches Pro-Life Political Action Committee (PAC)". Life Communications. 3 (19). September 1993.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  16. ^ Flynn, Tom; Dawkins, Richard (2007). The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief. Prometheus Books. p. 825. ISBN 978-1591023913.
  17. ^ "Commentary". Fidelity. 12. Wanderer Forum Foundation: 24. 1992. To counter the influx of prochoice women who have just entered Congress, Rachel MacNair, head of Feminists for Life, has formed a political action committee ... To the consternation of feminist prochoicers, she's named it the Susan B. Anthony List.
  18. ^ a b c d "Susan B. Anthony: Pro-life Feminist", Washington Post, May 2010
  19. ^ a b SBA List – Early Suffragists
  20. ^ a b Stevens, Allison (2006-10-06). "Susan B. Anthony's Abortion Position Spurs Scuffle". Women's eNews. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
  21. ^ Desperately Seeking Susan
  22. ^ BBC Abortion and the early feminists
  23. ^ a b c d e Esposito, Joseph (November 22, 1998). "Efforts to Elect Pro-Life Women Are Paying Off: In short time, political neophytes' initiative has become a growing force". National Catholic Register. Retrieved August 23, 2011.
  24. ^ SBA List History
  25. ^ "Leadership". Susan B. Anthony List. Archived from the original on August 15, 2000. Retrieved August 23, 2011.
  26. ^ "Susan B. Anthony List Contributions to Federal Candidates – 1998". Influence & Lobbying: PACs. OpenSecrets.org. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
  27. ^ Morris, Dwight (December 7, 1998). "The Bogeyman Unmasked: TV in the '98 Senate Races". Washington Post. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
  28. ^ Stevens, Allison (September 22, 2006). "Election Victories Reveal a PAC's Rising Influence". Women's eNews. Retrieved August 23, 2011.
  29. ^ Swers, Michele L. (2002). The difference women make: the policy impact of women in Congress. University of Chicago Press. p. 155. ISBN 0226786471.
  30. ^ Wayne, Stephen J.; Wilcox, Clyde (2002). The election of the century and what it tells us about the future of American politics. M.E. Sharpe. p. 118. ISBN 0765607433.
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