. . . because action speaks louder than words.
League history, NOW v. Scheidler, Action News, Joe Scheidler, League staff
League history, NOW v. Scheidler, Action News, Joe Scheidler, League staff
Q & A on abortion, the unborn child, where we stand on the issues and more
Helping abortion-bound women choose life for their babies
Unmasking the truth about abortion in the public square
Our youth outreach, raising up a new generation of pro-life leaders
Abortion industry converts tell the inside story
News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
NOTE: Due to its length and number of pictures, this article is split into three parts.
Prayer at Fullerton and Ashland [Photo by EJS]
We faced our most hostile public reception on Thursday, July 17 with three upscale sites on the North Side of Chicago that we dubbed "Yuppytown." It seems to be a rule: the more affluent the area, the more bitter the criticism. And the fewer the children in the neighborhood, the more likely residents complain that children might see the pictures.
We began at North Avenue and Halsted Street, a crossroads intersected by Clybourn, making for an unusual "six corners" site where we couldn't effectively use our warning signs. Otherwise the layout made for an interesting site, since we had enough volunteers and signs to cover all the streets.
Our next stop at Fullerton and Ashland Avenues was another "six corners" where the devil seemed to set up a franchise. When I offered a wildly tattooed man a brochure, he countered with an offer to slit my throat. I said, "No thanks." Later this "tough guy" harassed some of the women holding signs on Halsted near a shady bar where he appeared to work as a bouncer. Another man driving by shouted out that abortion is his sacrament and other blasphemies we will not repeat here.
We ended the day at Belmont Avenue and Halsted Street, an area known for its homosexual population. The public at this site was more indifferent than hostile. In the middle of this stop it began to rain and we started to pack up, but then the rain abated and we returned to our posts. This was the only spot of bad weather for the entire two-week tour, an unusually long stretch of blue skies.
After we left the last site, it began to rain heavily. I had bicycled to that day's sites, as I had done for most of the tour, and it rained in sheets for my ten-mile ride home. It took several hours that evening to dry out my camera, radio and other equipment.
Despite the downside of exposure to bad weather, the bike proved a valuable asset during the tour, allowing me to quickly inspect lines of signs, bring water to participants, and take pictures. At several sites I arrived on my bicycle first and scouted out parking spaces for the vans carrying our signs and literature. Over the course of the tour I logged 200 miles on my bike, and lost ten pounds!
[Back to Top]The 2003 Face the Truth tour concluded with two days in the suburbs, with over one-hundred participants each day. On Friday, July 18 we lined block after block after block of La Grange Road at Ogden Avenue in La Grange, one of the most visually impressive displays of the tour. We were not allowed to pass out literature on the street, so our literature crew fanned out into the surrounding neighborhoods, leaving Face the Truth brochures at hundreds of homes.
Mary-Louise Kurey leads group prayer after River Forest stop, July 18 [Photo by EJS]
Our next two sites that day were similarly impressive, as the number of participants swelled and we nearly ran out of signs. At midday we lined three blocks in each direction at Harlem and Ogden Avenues in Berwyn, where a prayer group from a local Christian coffee house spontaneously joined us to hold signs and pray for an end to abortion.
Mary-Louise Kurey, Respect Life Director of the Archdiocese of Chicago, joined us for the last site of the day at Harlem and North Avenues in River Forest. One woman at this site typified the schizophrenic response of some of the public. First she stopped several blocks before the graphic signs just to threaten the young woman holding the warning sign with arrest. Then she pulled over in the middle of the display and got out of her car with her young son, and proceeded to complain to Ann Scheidler about her son seeing the signs. She threatened to have us all arrested. If she were really concerned about her son seeing the graphic abortion pictures, she might have turned off at the warning sign. Instead, she stood with him right next to a sign of Baby Malachi. Clearly the real issue wasn't her child seeing the signs.
[Back to Top]We were met again by pro-abortion counter-protestors on the last day of the tour, starting at Pfingsten and Dundee Roads in Northbrook. They were a comical site with their little, blue "Keep Abortion Legal" signs, as more and more pro-life activists arrived and took up spots along the road. One of the pro-aborts held a hand-made sign that read "Pro-Child, Pro-Family, Pro-Choice," a slogan made all the more ridiculous by the presence of dozens of pro-life parents and children at this site.
One ten-year-old, Joey Garcia, saw the Truth tour while driving past with his mother. Amazed by the pictures, he made her stop so he could get out and help. He held a sign for the rest of that site, and his family joined him for the midday site at Harlem Ave and Dempster Street in Morton Grove. "Who could abort children? I just don't understand how anyone could do that," Joey said.
2003 Face the Truth tour's final stop on Touhy in Niles, July 19 [Photo by EJS]
In Morton Grove we spanned many blocks with our abortion signs, where again the handful of pro-abortion counter-protestors was reduced to irrelevance. "Where have you been all week?" I asked them. "We missed you."
Before our last tour stop at Milwaukee and Touhy Avenues in Niles we were treated to lunch at the Evanston home of Mary Higgins. In Niles the pro-aborts were down to two, but there were so many pro-lifers that we ran out of signs. We invited latecomers to sit at the War Memorial fountain at the corner and pray for the end of abortion.
After the final stop, eighty tour participants gathered at the Scheidler home on Chicago's Northwest Side for a barbecue to celebrate the successful 2003 tour. The party was great fun. This year's core group—those present for all or most sites—was the largest ever, and there was a marvelous esprit de corps. Great friendships are formed on the front lines of the abortion battle.
During the barbecue, Face the Truth veteran Monica Miller remarked that all the criticisms and insults are worth suffering for the sake of those we are able to touch. Her words are a fitting summary of the significance of a Face the Truth tour: "You are privileged to watch the awakening of a soul to the reality of abortion that they never knew or understood before."
[Back to Part 1] [Back to Top]