Pro-Lifers Mourn Gloria Klein,
First NRLC Treasurer
By Liz Townsend

Gloria Klein, a pioneer in the Pro-Life Movement and the first treasurer of the National Right to Life Committee, died June 20 of complications from breast cancer. She was 60 years old.

"She was an outstanding leader and an inspiring woman," said Jane Muldoon, who served as her alternate when Klein was Michigan's representative to NRLC in the 1970s. "She inspired a lot of people to join with her. She worked tirelessly and gave her all."

Klein began her involvement in the fight against abortion after hearing a pro-life speaker on Phil Donahue's television show in 1970. A homemaker with no previous involvement in a political cause, she quickly gathered other pro-lifers at her home in Waterford, Michigan, to form a pro-life group called People Taking Action Against Abortion.

Now known as Right to Life-Lifespan, it has grown to include several thousand members in chapters in three Michigan counties.

In 1972, Klein served as a co-chairman of Voice of the Unborn, a group formed to fight a Michigan referendum that would have allowed abortion up to 20 weeks. Pro-lifers defeated the referendum.

Voice of the Unborn later became Michigan Citizens for Life, now known as Right to Life of Michigan - - an NRLC state affiliate.

After Roe v. Wade made abortion on demand the law of the land, Klein expanded her service to the unborn to a national level. At NRLC's first convention in Detroit in June 1973, participants elected Klein to the post of treasurer. Klein continued to serve NRLC as the Michigan representative to the Board of Directors.

Klein put her concern for others into practice by going back to school when she was 50 years old to become a nurse specializing in home health care.

"She was also interested inhospice care," said Muldoon. "She was just an outstanding person."

Gloria Klein is survived by her husband Richard, six daughters, and 11 grandchildren. Pro-lifers across the country join them in mourning th