Jefferson’s background as a doctor made her a compelling and powerful surrogate. ( After her death, one NRL leader praised her as “the greatest orator of our movement.”) Women like her “achieved pretty big leadership posts pretty quickly because they were anomalies,” according to Haugeberg. “The anti-abortion movement always knew it was vulnerable to criticism if it looked like it was a bunch of white men trying to tell women and people of color what to do with their bodies,” she says. “They were really sensitive to that — and it was true, it was a lot of white men. In a PR move, they tried to promote people of color and women very quickly to have them be the face of the movement.”