On Sunday, May 18, 2025, we lost Phil Moran, a pro-life hero and one of the Massachusetts Citizens for Life founders.
He was 87. I did not know Mr. Moran well but was highly aware of the words always accompanying his name – descriptors like “giant,” “great,” “committed,” “pillar.” Author of this organization’s bylaws and articles of incorporation, he offered his parliamentarian expertise during a board meeting several years ago, lending a hand in managing our evolution, ensuring MCFL would become a dynamic entity capable of meeting contemporary demands our movement presents.
As we marked MCFL’s silver anniversary, Phil penned a short history of the organization he helped to create. Originally published in our magazine’s winter 2023 issue, we share excerpts of it again below. Thank you, Phil, for the outstanding legacy you have left behind. We’ll carry it always in our continued fight to protect unborn life.
The following is drawn from Phil Moran’s firsthand reflection on our founding:
In August of 1972, Irving Kane, my law partner at the time, came to my office and said “I went to a meeting last night and after the meeting I told the host, Dr. Joseph Stanton, that I thought you might be interested in joining us at the next meeting.” He briefed me on the fact that Planned Parenthood had selected certain Wards and Precincts in Lynn and Nahant, among other places, to place a non-binding referendum on the November ballot which stated that abortion should be an issue between a woman and her doctor.
A couple of nights later, Irving and I travelled to Newton to meet with Dr. Stanton and other interested parties, including Frank O’Connor from Worcester, Ann and Ray Scarpato from Wayland, John and Jean Svagdys from the South Shore, Priscilla Laveaga from Boston and Dick Carey from Newton. I might add Maryanne Rea Luthin, who was a student intern for Dr. Stanton at that time.
We discussed how to proceed and Irving was selected to be the Director, due to his political experience, having been the Mayor of Lynn. I was appointed Chair of Lynn and Nahant and the Scarpatos Chair of Framingham and selected towns and Frank O’Connor the chair of Worcester. John and Jean Svagdys covered Scituate and Hingham. Priscilla and Dick were in charge of keeping score of what each of us were doing. . . .
In November I believe that we were defeated by a 50.5 to 49.5 margin and as far as I and the others knew, that was it.
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court , in a 7-2 decision, announced in Roe v. Wade that abortion was legal everywhere in the United States in a poorly written decision by Justice Harry Blackmun that read more like a piece of legislation as opposed to a landmark Constitutional decision. In a companion case announced the same day, Doe v. Bolton, abortion effectively became legal for any reason or no reason at all through all nine months of pregnancy.
Four days later, Dr. Stanton called the members of the previously mentioned ad hoc committee together. It was decided to form a corporation and since I had recently left the corporate world, I was selected to prepare the Articles of Organization.
We voted on a corporate purpose and bylaws and then the following were voted as the original Officers and Board of Directors:
President: Roy Scarpato
Treasurer: John Svagdys
Clerk: Philip D. Moran
Directors:
Joseph R. Stanton, M.D.
Roy Scarpato, M.S.
Irving E. Kane, Esq.
Francis O’Connor, Esq.
John Svagdys CPA
Jean Svagdys
Pricilla Laveaga
Rabbi Samuel Fox
Philip D. Moran, Esq.
Executive Director: Richard Carey
On January 27, 1973, I drove to the Secretary of State’s office and filed the corporate papers and Massachusetts Citizens For Life, Inc. was born!
Shortly afterwards, Roy was contacted by the National Right to Life Committee and was asked for the MCFL to become the official Massachusetts member of the NRLC. Due to his work schedule, he decided that he could not serve as the Director for Massachusetts and it was agreed that Dr. Mildred Jefferson would serve as our Director to the NRLC. In fact, soon after she was elected President of the NRLC.
In the meantime, we were contacted by State Representatives Ray Flynn and Charles Doyle asked if we would lobby for the Doyle Flynn Bill which would prevent State tax dollars from being spent for abortion in Massachusetts. It was a forerunner of the Hyde Amendment.
In order to comply with the law, Roy enlisted the assistance of Professor Jim Smith of BC Law School and Thayer Fremont Smith, Esq. and others to form a separate organization known as the Pro Life Legal Defense Fund, which would be the lobbying arm of MCFL. Indeed, with the assistance of the PLLDF, the Doyle Flynn Bill became law.
The following Spring, at the annual election of Officers and Directors, I was asked to challenge Mildred as the NRLC Director despite the fact that she was still President. In a stunning surprise, I was elected as the new Director from the Commonwealth to the NRLC, a position I held for the next seventeen years.
During this period, Anne Fox was in charge of the MCFL newspaper and she had a Special Edition which listed the candidates for Federal and State offices. Although she was unable to endorse any of the candidates, she did put photos of those she thought would be pro-life votes. Someone from one of the opposition groups reported this to the Federal Elections Commission, who filed a complaint against the MCFL in Federal District Court. Shortly before this, I had attended a seminar in Washington and the major topic of conversation was about a case involving the Boston Globe and I noted that its attorney was Francis Fox from the firm of Bingham, Dana Gould in Boston. I spoke to Kathy Healy and she called Fran and set up an appointment. Together we went to his office and while reviewing the corporate papers he said that “I see one of my classmates is a new member of your Board.”She asked who was that and he said Joe Reilly.
As a fellow Holy Cross guy like Joe Reilly, I immediately knew Fran was also a Holy Cross alumnus and that gave us all a feeling of comfort.
Fran represented us at the District Court and Federal Appeals Court and prevailed. The FEC wouldn’t give up and appealed to the US Supreme Court and they agreed to hear the case. I had the privilege of being present when Fran successfully argued the matter at the Supreme Court. Even today, the case of FEC v. MCFL is one of the most quoted cases involving freedom of the press and the First Amendment.
Over the next several years, I had the honor to serve as President, Chairman and NRLC Director representing the MCFL, including representing the MCFL at the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in the matter of Planned Parenthood v. Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, in which we were allowed to intervene to protect parental rights.
From 1998 to 2012, I was elected President of the Pro Life Legal Defense Fund, the group of lawyers that Roy founded in 1974, as mentioned above.
I tell all of this to reflect over 49 years and eleven months that both my wife Carole and I have been largely involved in the Pro-Life movement and when the Dobbs decision was announced on June 24th and became official on July 26, 2022, overturning the false assumption that somewhere in the United States Constitution that there ever was a constitutional right to kill the unborn and we were obviously thrilled.
Is there satisfaction knowing that those other members of the MCFL and the PLLDF from Day One until today were right all along? Should all of us in the pro-life movement celebrate? I guess we should, but still be ever mindful that the battle might be won but the war is still ongoing, especially in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Yet, yes, after all of these years of being told that you were on the wrong side, except of course by the Supreme Court in the matter of McCullough v. Coakley, of which I was counsel of record to begin the case and which the Supreme Court ruled in our favor 9-0. I guess that there is a warm comfy feeling that perhaps what we did was not in vain. That is a nice feeling. So the bottom line is that I, along with my wife Carole, are proud to be part of a historic battle and yes, we can and will celebrate Dobbs as our victory! Ever keeping in mind that life is precious from the moment of conception until natural death.