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N.Y. Right to Life Party founder dies

NEW YORK, March 28 (UPI) -- Ellen McCormack, the founder of New York state's Right to Life Party who ran for U.S. president twice, has died at age 84, her family said.

McCormack, who died Sunday, was part of a group of Long Island housewives who founded the right to life group, then she went on to run for president in 1976 and 1980, the New York Daily News reported.

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Her son John McCormack, 45, a retired New York Police Department homicide sergeant, said his mother had a serious heart problem while she was pregnant with him.

"The doctors were recommending that she have an abortion and she refused, and that was her inspiration to enter that cause," he said.

Launching a campaign for president as a Democrat in 1976, McCormack qualified on the ballot in 18 states, garnering more than 200,000 votes.

"It was a real grassroots movement," John McCormack said.

She ran again in 1980 as a third-party candidate under the Right to Life Party banner.

McCormack's husband Francis, a deputy inspector in the NYPD, died in 1993.

She is survived by four children and 11 grandchildren.

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