Judie Brown is president and co-founder of American Life League (ALL), a pro-life education and advocacy organization which was founded in 1979. She has served three terms on the Pontifical Academy for Life in Rome, has authored 12 books, and has helped launch other pro-life organizations, including Human Life International, Priests for Life and the Pro-Life Action League. She regularly writes columns and has frequently appeared in the broadcast media advocating for life.
Today, ALL is headquartered in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is staffed by 30 and has 101 associate organizations. Brown’s son, Hugh Brown, serves as vice president of ALL, and her granddaughter Katie Brown is director of communications.
Judie Brown was born in Southern California and met her husband of 53 years, Paul Brown, while both worked for Kmart. They lived in different parts of the country and became involved in the pro-life movement while living in Atlanta in 1975. The couple had three children together, and 13 grandchildren. Paul died in 2021.
Brown lives in Missouri today and turns 80 on March 4th. She spoke recently with CWR, reflecting on her years with the pro-life movement.
CWR: In the years before the Roe v. Wade decision was announced in 1973, was there a growing demand for legal abortion?
Judie Brown: I believe there was a growing demand. Use of the Pill and IUD for birth control, both of which can cause early abortion, was becoming widespread and abortion was needed as a backup.
CWR: What led you to co-found ALL?
Judie Brown: There was no organization in the pro-life movement at the time that was standing up against every single abortion as well as contraception. So, my husband and I, along with four other couples, began ALL. We founded it on the teachings of the Catholic faith, so we were opposed to contraception as well as abortion. There is indeed a connection between contraception and abortion.
In the early days, we did a lot of lobbying of legislators, as well as produced our ALL News and built our mailing list. One of our early friends in Congress in those days was Senator Jesse Helms (1921-2008) of North Carolina, who championed the Human Life Amendment.
We realized, however, that, in addition to lobbying, we needed to educate the public as well. And we began building alliances with pro-life organizations across the county.
CWR: Were legislators open to your message in those early days?
Judie Brown: No, not initially, but we were soon recognized as an organization that stood up for the fullness of the truth. That was attractive to practicing Catholics, who made up most of our donor base. Over time, however, my husband’s efforts to replace pro-abortion legislators with pro-life ones achieved success and we had more lawmakers open to passing pro-life legislation.
CWR: Has your pro-life message changed through the years?
Judie Brown: No, it is essentially the same. We focus on the personhood of the pre-born child, who is an individual distinct from his or her mother. Therefore, we should always be seeking a total ban on abortion.
I am opposed to incremental approaches to outlaw abortion, say with a law that bans abortion after 16 weeks of pregnancy. After nearly 50 years in the pro-life movement, I can say that a “watering down” approach is ineffective, and, in fact, is a crime. So, we’re saying it’s okay to kill a pre-born child for the first 16 weeks, but not after? This approach has been the undoing of the pro-life movement and plays into the pro-abortion side’s hands. The pro-abortion side is more in agreement than the pro-life side; they are totally committed to killing; many on our side accept degrees of killing.
CWR: What successes have you seen with promoting the pro-life message to the general public?
Judie Brown: We’re seeing that more and more people of every age bracket are beginning to see that it is a human being who lives in the womb and who deserves protection. We even see prominent Hollywood actresses, who are otherwise pro-abortion, talk about the “baby” within their womb.
CWR: Has the leadership of the Catholic Church been a valuable ally to ALL?
Judie Brown: If you’re talking about bishop’s conferences, like the USCCB, I would say their support has been minimal. They are extremely political and offer little help.
That said, there have been individual bishops who have been heroic, incredible men in supporting the pro-life movement, and I’m proud to have been associated with them. A few who come to mind are Cardinal Raymond Burke, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs (1945-2022), Bishop Joseph Strickland, Archbishop Joseph Naumann, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Archbishop Samuel Aquila and Bishop Andrew Cozzens.
CWR: Who do you believe are some of the most effective pro-life advocates?
Judie Brown: Dr. Mildred Jefferson (1927-2010) taught me everything I know. She was an incredible scientist and physician who founded the National Right to Life Committee. Lila Rose of Live Action is excellent, as is Fr. Shenan Boquet, president of Human Life International.
CWR: Were you pleased with the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson U.S. Supreme Court decision which overturned Roe v. Wade?
Judie Brown: I thought it was fraught with error. It dealt with a 2018 Mississippi law that allowed abortions in the first 15 weeks and had exceptions after. It didn’t protect all babies; it protected some babies. I don’t call it a victory. Again, this legislation is an incrementalist approach, which is never going to be successful in the end. But it’s been difficult to stand up and tell the truth about Dobbs when so many pro-life organizations are seeing it as a big victory. We have to admit that a person is a person from conception onwards, and abortion must be illegal in all circumstances, with no exceptions.
CWR: What are you doing now?
Judie Brown: Although I am still president of ALL, I have entrusted the day-to-day leadership of ALL to my son Hugh, who is capably assisted by his daughter Katie! We are still publishing our ALL news, our magazine, our weekly STOPP report and providing speakers across the country. We’re not engaged in lobbying any longer, as we’ve found other pro-life organizations are better situated for this than we are. We have become more educational and less political. But I will say that the 2024 elections are critical: are we going to elect politicians dedicated to the proposition that every human life, born or pre-born, deserves legal protection?
CWR: There is an annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., and pro-life walks in other parts of the country. Are these helpful to the movement?
Judie Brown: Yes. They are inspiring and give like-minded people a chance to join together and enjoy camaraderie. It’s also a good witness to the local communities that the pro-life movement is not going away.
CWR: Your husband Paul died in 2021. He was your close collaborator in your pro-life work. How has that affected you?
Judie Brown: I miss him terribly. He was an inspiration to me, and the best husband anyone could have ever asked for. I am strong willed, and he knew just how to handle me. I loved him, and I benefitted from his wisdom and loving attitude. He also knew how to be politically effective. I can’t wait to see him again in heaven!
CWR: One of the prominent people you knew was President Ronald Reagan, who famously signed legislation as governor of California in 1967 legalizing abortion. Did he share with you that he regretted this decision?
Judie Brown: Yes, in fact, he publicly repented of this decision in front of a room full of pro-life leaders. He evolved into a powerful pro-life voice. His wife, Nancy, unfortunately, did not share this conviction.
CWR: You also knew Dr. Bernard Nathanson (1926-2011), the former abortionist and founder of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) who became pro-life.
Judie Brown: Yes. He was one of the strongest voices for the pro-life movement we’ve ever had. His conversion was total. He said that if he’d only realized early on that abortion kills babies, he never would have started.
CWR: And you haven’t been shy about condemning the NAACP.
Judie Brown: Yes. They claim to be against racism, but have presided over the deaths of 20 million black babies. That makes it one of the most racist organizations on the planet!
CWR: How important is your Catholic faith to you?
Judie Brown: If I did not have the daily Mass and Eucharist to embolden my heart in this fight to save the innocents, I would never have lasted all these years. Christ sustains me, gives me comfort and reminds me every day that in Him resides the only truth that matters.
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I’ve always admired Mrs.Judie’s steadfast spirit. God bless her and her family.
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear rosaries and fight for the weakest and most vulnerable human beings on the planet.
God bless Judie Brown! I respectfully disagree with her sweeping dismissal of the “incremental” approach to pro-life legislation. In itself it is morally unobjectionable to support an “imperfect” law aimed at limiting the number of abortions, Pope St. John Paul II taught in *Evangelium Vitae* n. 73. That sort of law sends a mixed message, but a legislator who publicly states his or her principles (defend all preborn human life) may in good conscience vote for such a law as one step toward that goal. Mrs. Brown is right that in the U.S.A. there is a lazy tendency to declare a politician “pro-life” just because he checked one box (e.g. voted against partial-birth abortion).
Tudor Dixon was for a total ban. The voters went for Whitmer and Prop 3. Yes, I do think there was some voter fraud in Michigan, but I also think the Prop 3 was not really a part of that.
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The big part of the problem I think is the fornication. The pro-life community really has not been able to deal with that.
True. Hedoninsts will always “need” abortion to terminate pregnancies that result from recreational sex and contraceptive failure. Our culture is thoroughly rotten.
J.M.J.
With Thanks and Gratitude for all you, Judie Brown, and your family have done to affirm and protect The Sanctity of all Human Life from the moment of conception and The Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament Of Holy Matrimony and thus affirm and protect The Word Of Perfect Love Incarnate, Our Savior, Jesus The Christ, from those who deny that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage .
Happy 80th Birthday,Julie!
You are truly a woman of God–and His children-Thank you for all the lives you have saved and helped and inform so many that “life begins at conception” You are admired and blessed — May God continue to guide you and your son in this movement to save lives. I will continue to help.
I followed Judy for many years.. She was an early voice for Pro-lifers.. God Bless Judy Brown,.
God bless Judie for her many years of pro-life activism!
“After nearly 50 years in the pro-life movement, I can say that a “watering down” approach is ineffective.”
Really? Just how would she know? How can Judy Brown know better than God what affects every heart and mind in a civilization that effects the entire social ethos of that civilization, especially after all the sabotaging work she has personally done towards restrictive legislation, very often the only legislation possible in hostile political climates. Even the full effects of her consequentialist reasoning cannot be judged, other than a lot of dead babies thanks to her “efforts”.
With all the talk of converting hearts and minds, how can anyone ignore the reality that conversion often occurs gradually in the lives of many pro-aborts? Judie Brown misrepresents the legislative reality. She has created the impression that restrictive legislation was mostly of the sort that only restricts second and third trimester when most of the time it actually eliminated all abortions except for rape and incest. When ninety-eight percent of abortions are eliminated, in addition to saving actual lives, it can affect a cultural shift. After enactment, when the sky doesn’t fall, even many soft liberals might reconsider the lies they’ve been told about the enslavement of women. The mysterious ways of God include that we not try to second guess all the repercussions of consequences, which is why we always do the best we can and do not make Gods of ourselves by making our own judgments on the efficacy of morality, including its prudential applications when prudential judgments are the only means available.
Judie is awesome! I met her 30 years ago at a fundraiser and have been a fan ever since. In my mind, no one in the pro-life movement has done as much as Judie. Please keep her in your prayers. Her work is not yet done. We have to protect the babies.
I’ll confess that I’d never heard of Judie Brown but that’s probably because I’m not American. It does seem to me that the American pro-life movement is the strongest there is, so all credit to early leaders like her.
I’m interested in Mrs. Hess’s comment above. What’s that line about the upstream source?