Dr. Jefferson was a physician and anti-abortion activist. She was first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, the first woman to graduate in surgery from Harvard Medical School and the first woman to become a member of the Boston Surgical Society. Dr. Jefferson founded the Massachusetts Citizens for Life and later became Vice President and then President of the National Right to Life Committee.
Along with her work fighting the Roe vs Wade Supreme Court decision Dr. Jefferson is also noted for changing President Ronald Reagan's stance on abortion from pro-choice to anti-abortion. He wrote to her in a letter, "You have made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is the taking of a human life, I am grateful to you."