Fall 2006 ACTION NEWS | VOL. XXV No. 3
Due to its length, this story is divided into three parts.
Pro-Life Action Fights Back, 1998-2005
by Joe Scheidler
Fateful Campus Truth Tour
In March we fatefully launched a series of monthly Truth Days on college campuses on "Abortion Providers Appreciation Day." We took our graphic display to Northwestern University and to Loyola University, where we were confronted by a rabble of belligerent anarchists who had learned about the Truth Day from our website. At Northwestern we had to call the police to assure our safety, and one of the pro-abort activists was arrested for disturbing the peace and drug possession. At Loyola, a woman who identified herself as the Freshman Dean told us we could not stand on the public sidewalk near a CTA bus stop. She then fraternized jovially with the anarchists. Some pro-life students joined our demonstration.
Pro-abort counter-protestors at UIC, April 7, 2004, Spy Wednesday
At our next Campus Truth Day on April 7, which was Spy Wednesday of Holy Week, the anarchists were back during our Tour sites at the Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Illinois at Chicago. At UIC they grew violent, attacking League staffer Carmeline DeVito and splashing Eric and me with black dye. Dozens of campus and Chicago police were on site but were unhelpful. We concealed the locations for the remaining campus Truth Days from the pro-abort activists, and we were able to continue our campus outreach unhindered.
Friends in Florida
Jerry and Kathleen Sullivan, pro-life friends who had relocated from Chicago to Naples, FL invited Ann and me to visit them for a few days in March. Kathleen had founded Project Reality, an abstinence education organization, and "retirement" notwithstanding, she was still heavily involved in the movement. She was glued to the television during the primary election returns to find out what happened in Illinois.
Activist Jim Finnegan also has a winter home in Naples. He arranged for me to speak at Ave Maria University during our mini vacation. After my talk I joined Fr. Joe Fessio, S.J. and many students for the evening Rosary walk around the University.
Jack Ames invited me to Baltimore for as many talks as he could squeeze into two days. Jack has the ability to keep me busier than I would think possible. But I always meet terrific pro-life people, so I love it. I spoke at Mt. St. Mary's Seminary, the University of Maryland and St. Joseph's Catholic Church. The following day we spent an hour at an abortuary before heading to the airport.
The Wonders of New Mexico
Dr. Tony Levatino and his wife Ceil invited Ann and me to visit their new home in Las Cruces, NM and to give a talk to the Dona Ana County chapter of Right to Life of New Mexico. The Levatinos left Troy, NY to settle in southern New Mexico in 2003 and quickly became involved in the pro-life community there. Tony is medical director of a crisis pregnancy center and Ceil was a delegate to the Republican National Convention.
The day after my talk in Las Cruces, the four of us drove two hundred miles to Albuquerque where Tony and Ceil were the speakers at a fundraiser for the Albuquerque CareNet centers. On the drive back to Las Cruces we had a lively discussion on the role of contraception in the abortion culture, which spurred us to plan for a conference on that subject (see related story).
Tony, an amateur astronomer, set up a powerful telescope to show me the New Mexico night sky. We were all awestruck by the glory of God who created the universe with its endless heavens. The next morning as we drove to church I saw another beautiful sight—a CLOSED sign on a Planned Parenthood center. Our aim is to slap a CLOSED sign on every abortion clinic in the nation.
A Pro-Life Springtime
Right after the New Mexico trip I boarded an Amtrak train for Jackson, MI where I spoke to Jackson Citizens for Life at the invitation of Kathy Potts; then flew to Chesterfield, MO for a talk at Gateway Academy, arranged by Camille Murphy and Elizabeth Daub, formerly of Walk for Life. Ann and I drove to Peoria, IL for a dinner and talk at a Legatus gathering. A few days later we were on our way to Lynnwood, WA where I delivered the banquet talk for Pro-Life Washington and Ann gave a workshop on sidewalk counseling for the Seattle area Helpers of God's Precious Infants. Matt and Georgene Ulrich arranged both events.
Generations for Life saw some major changes in spring 2004. Annie got married in May and became Mrs. Robert Casselman. Co-director Mary Shine left the League to become a mother, and John Jansen, who had helped us with Face the Truth in 2003, joined the GFL staff full-time.
2004 Truth Tour Saves 20 Babies
Eric Scheidler sets up the display during the 2004 Face the Truth Tour [Photo by Dan Gura]
Our annual Face the Truth Tour ran from July 7-17 and this year my son Matthias joined the core team. He, Eric, John Jansen and Tom Morrison brought Truth Tour coordination to a new level. We spent the first three days at sites in downtown Chicago, then covered sites north, south and west of the city. Once again we ended the Tour with a party at our house. The 2004 Tour resulted in at least twenty known "saves," situations in which people told us they had changed their minds about an abortion after seeing the graphic pictures.
A trip to Manchester, NY afforded me an opportunity to visit with Shannon McGinley, who had worked at the League before she got married. Shannon had invited me to Indiana University in 1992, where I faced one of the most hostile crowds in my pro-life experience. After a year with Collegians Activated to Liberate Life (CALL) and a year at the League, she married and moved to the east coast where she quickly got involved in pro-life. She invited me to address the New Hampshire Right to Life Committee at their annual banquet.
Picketing Loyola Law Award
League protests Loyola Law School award to pro-abort Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Oct. 30, 2004 [Photo by Ann Scheidler]
On October 30 Loyola University in Chicago presented the Saint Robert Bellarmine Award to Lisa Madigan, the pro-abortion Attorney General of Illinois. While I was in Waterbury, CT for a talk at the Connecticut Right to Life banquet, and Eric was in LaSalle County, IL giving a seminar on Face the Truth, John Jansen led a protest of Madigan at the Westin Hotel, situated such that everyone who attended the formal dinner had to see our graphic abortion signs and placards saying: Shame on "Catholic" Loyola and Lisa Madigan Is Pro-Abortion. Across the street hundreds of patrons of the House of Blues, in line for a concert, had an opportunity to dwell on the reality of abortion.
Pro-lifers in Des Moines, IA took advantage of several League speakers in November. I was invited to speak at the Iowa Right to Life convention. John Jansen and Annie Casselman put on an entire teen conference at the convention, and two weeks later Ann went to Des Moines to give a sidewalk counseling seminar and on-site training.
When Jen Giroux of Cincinnati, OH heard that the League was facing a financial struggle she hastily pulled together a fundraising event. Ann and I drove to Cincinnati where I gave a talk and Jennifer cajoled the guests into making donations to the League. She raised over $10,000. They even raffled off an original edition of my book CLOSED: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion for $300!
We ended 2004 with what has become an annual event, the "Empty Manger Christmas Caroling." We visited five abortion clinics with an empty manger and sang Christmas carols to highlight the beauty of every child's life. Two babies were saved when women were touched by the words of the carols and the reality of Jesus' birth.
2005: Our Silver Jubilee
The year 2005 marked the 25th anniversary of the Pro-Life Action League and we began planning for events to celebrate our silver jubilee. Apparently our celebration would not include an end to NOW v. Scheidler.
On January 28, nearly two years after our "victory" at the U. S. Supreme Court, and a year after we had petitioned for an en banc hearing, the full Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its decision, siding with NOW's lawyers who somehow construed that the Supreme Court hadn't meant what it said in the 8-1 2003 ruling. By NOW's reckoning, when the Supreme Court said the "injunction issued by the District Court must necessarily be vacated," and the judgment "must also be reversed," what they meant was "might be reversed—or might not."
The Appellate Court wanted to leave it to Judge Coar in the District Court to decide. But we had had enough of the District Court. We chose instead to take it back to the U. S. Supreme Court to determine if they meant what they said or not. Once again we petitioned the high Court for a hearing.
Wisconsin prayer warriors asked us to join them at two abortion mills in Milwaukee in January. Linda Schmidt, director of the Milwaukee chapter of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, organized a prayer vigil at Summit abortion clinic and at Planned Parenthood. At Summit a contingent of aggressive, confrontational deathscorts mocked the prayers of the forty stalwarts who held a two-hour vigil despite sub-zero temperatures. Planned Parenthood was closed for business, but we prayed there for an hour. In my talk at the awards luncheon following the vigil, I reminded the audience that they were not there by chance. They had been chosen by God for a specific pro-life vocation. The unflagging efforts of the Milwaukee pro-life activists were rewarded in November when Summit clinic abruptly closed down. Deo Gratias!
League Mourns Terri Schiavo
Throughout the month of March the national media and the pro-life community were absorbed with the tragic plight of Terri Schiavo. The League joined an eleventh-hour campaign organized by Operation Rescue's Troy Newman to pressure the national and Florida state authorities to intervene in the court-mandated starvation of Terri. In Chicago the League dedicated a Face the Truth Day to a massive literature distribution alerting Chicagoans to travesty. On March 29, we joined a demonstration led by Not Dead Yet, a disability advocacy organization. Terri's death on March 31 was a black day indeed.
The Pro-Life Action League has always aimed to maintain good relations with members of the media. In that vein on March 24 Ann and I joined representatives of several other Chicago area pro-life organizations in a round table discussion with Chicago Tribune public editor Don Wycliff and five Tribune writers. The meeting was very positive and led to subsequent calls from Tribune staff on various pro-life issues, as well as coverage of our Contraception Is Not the Answer conference in September.
Saving Babies—and Souls—with the Truth
As League demonstrators lined Lake Shore Drive at Jackson Boulevard on April 18, a young man stopped in astonishment. "That's what abortion looks like?" he asked. He explained that a "counselor" at a Chicago abortion clinic had told him and his pregnant girlfriend that the unborn baby looked like "worms." Seeing the truth, he vowed he would have nothing to do with abortion. My son Eric gave him information on finding help.
On April 30, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, led a Helpers of God's Precious Infants vigil from St. John Berchman's Church in Logan Square to the American Women's Medical Center on Western Ave., the scene of many confrontations with deathscorts over the years.
On June 2, we attended a luncheon in Washington D.C. honoring African-American pro-life leaders. Dr. Mildred Jefferson, Dr. Johnny Hunter and Kay Cole James were celebrated by Black Americans for Life, an outreach of the National Right to Life Committee.
During our June Truth Day in Evanston, IL a man jumped out of his car and began swearing and shouting at Eric, who spoke calmly to the man and listened to his tale of woe. Eric advised him to visit a church and pray for God's guidance, and the conversation ended more than amicably when the man grabbed Eric and hugged him.
League Heads Back to High Court
June 2005 marked twenty-five years of pro-life activism. On June 28 we got word that the Supreme Court had granted Certiorari in our appeal of the Seventh Circuit's decision not to instruct the district court to end our case. The oral hearing was scheduled for November 30, 2005—our third trip to the Supreme Court.
It was a fitting testament to our two and a half decades of dynamic pro-life activism that we would receive this news in our anniversary month. From its humble beginnings in 1980 the League became a nationally recognized leader in pro-life activism, thanks in large part to NOW v. Scheidler, the very case that was supposed to silence us.
This concludes the League's retrospective series.
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