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Home Action News Winter 2004 Other Stories

Winter 2004 ACTION NEWS | VOL. XXIII No. 1

Other Stories

Thirty First Annual March for Life

[March for Life Vanguard]

Young women form the vanguard of the march, chanting: "Roe v. Wade has got to go!" [Photo by EJS]

The Pro-Life Action League was represented at the thirty-first annual March for Life on January 22 by National Director Joe Scheidler, Executive Director Ann Scheidler, Generations for Life Director Annie Scheidler and Communications Director Eric Scheidler. Joining them was Eric's son Nate, at eleven already an experienced pro-life activist. During the March, Joe Scheidler and Annie Scheidler gave live interviews to EWTN's Marcus Grodi.

[Silent No More Campaign]

Woman tells how she regrets her abortions
[Photo by Ann Scheidler]

Though the occasion remembered is a sad one, as always the March for Life was an upbeat event, with over one hundred thousand pro-lifers gathering from across the country to stand up for life. The youthfulness of this pro-life throng is always a great source of encouragement.

A more somber note was struck in the evening after the march when dozens of women from the Silent No More campaign spoke publically about the grief and heartbreak caused by their abortions. One of the women gave her testimony in a wedding dress that she said she'd never get to wear for her wedding, after four abortions over two decades.

Pro-lifers have marched in Washington every year since the Supreme Court overturned all state laws protecting the lives of unborn children with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

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Scheidlers Honored at SpeakOut Illinois

[SpeakOut Illinois]

FROM LEFT: Cardinal George, Joe and Ann Scheidler, Sandy Rios, Henry Hyde. Bottom left: Scheidler grandson Noah Miller, who snuck up on stage. [Photo by EJS]

The Pro-Life Action League's Joe and Ann Scheidler were honored at the 2004 SpeakOut Illinois Conference with the Henry Hyde Leadership Award, presented by Rep. Hyde and Chicago Archbishop Francis Cardinal George. Accepting the award, Joe and Ann emphasized the need to appeal to abortion-bound women and even abortionists with love.

The 2004 SpeakOut Illinois event focused on the theme Understanding "Choice," with a keynote address by Miss America 2003 Erika Harold and several workshops. The program concluded with the banquet at which the Scheidlers were honored, and a candlelight ceremony commemorating the millions of children we've lost to abortion.

SpeakOut Illinois is a unique coalition of pro-life groups, bringing together activists, educational and political groups, pregnancy centers and post-abortion outreach groups for an annual pro-life conference. The League has been proud to co-sponsor the annual SpeakOut Illinois event since its inception in 1992.

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League Brings Christmas to Firehouse

[Caroling at Glenview Firehouse]

Caroling at Glenview Fire Station No. 7 [Photo by Ann Scheidler]

A few days before Christmas, the Village Board of Glenview, IL ordered fire fighters at Fire Station No. 7 to remove all the Christmas decorations inside their firehouse. Someone had seen a Christmas tree and Santa Claus through the window and complained.

Learning of this injustice, League Executive Director Ann Scheidler, who grew up in Glenview and whose father served as a volunteer fireman in Glenview for many years, issued a press release, inviting concerned citizens of Glenview and the surrounding area to gather at Fire Station No. 7 and sing carols at noon on Christmas Eve. "The firefighters don't just work here," she said. "They live here when they are on duty. They have a right to bring the Christmas spirit to their home away from home."

The carolers were warmly received by the fire fighters, to whom they gave a Santa Claus Fireman figurine. Several media outlets sent reporters, and the caroling was featured on NBC Channel 5 News and in the Metro section of the Chicago Tribune. In the evening another group came and set up a lighted Christmas tree next to the firehouse with a sign: "Glenview is a Scrooge-free zone."

A representative of the local fire fighters union wrote to thank the League for restoring the Christmas spirit at Station No. 7.

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Eric Brings Message on Building Culture of Life to Bay Area

[CRTL Banquet]

FROM LEFT: Pastor Tim Brown, Eric Scheidler, Beth and Brian Hockel at the California Right to Life Education Fund dinner, Oct. 24

League Communications Dirctor Eric Scheidler visited the San Francisco Bay Area Oct. 24-26 for a series of talks at the invitation of Brian Hockel and Celia Cody. On Friday, Oct. 24 he addressed the California Right to Life Education Fund benefit dinner at the Walnut Creek Civic Arts Building on how the success of the pro-life movement depends on our living more deeply within a culture of life, highlighting the often ignored link between abortion and contraception.

On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 25, Eric spoke at St. Isadore church in Walnut Creek to couples involved with marriage preparation in the Oakland Diocese on John Paul II's theology of the body, also at the invitation of Brian Hockel. He spoke to a similar audience in the evening at Marin County Catholic High School in Kentfield, a talk that was videotaped by his host, Chris Lyford for all the couples working in marriage preparation in the Diocese of San Fancisco.

Before returning to Chicago on Sunday, Eric rented a mountain bike in Sausalito and biked up Mt. Tamalpais, the birthplace of the sport.

Eric has also given talks in recent months at a Theology on Tap meeting at St. Petrolina Church in Glen Ellyn, IL and for the St. Cornelius RCIA class in Chicago.

To invite Eric to speak to your church or pro-life group, call his office or write eric#64;prolifeaction.org.

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