. . . 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: This is the second installment in a four-part Twenty-Fifth Anniversary retrospective series on the Pro-Life Action League. Due to its length, this installment is broken into three parts.
Tim Murphy (left) and Jerry McCarthy retrieve aborted babies' bodies from the garbage behind the Michigan Avenue abortion clinic
In January 1988, an employee of Vital-Med pathology laboratory in suburban Chicago contacted Conrad Wojnar, director of the Women's Centers, to alert the pro-life movement that when the lab did pathology work on aborted babies, their mangled bodies were placed in 50-gallon drums and left on the loading dock.
Wojnar called on the League's Tim Murphy, who mobilized a small group of pro-lifers to go to the lab for several months to retrieve the bodies of the aborted babies. Tim found various places to store the aborted babies while arrangements were made for a decent burial.
I asked Chicago's Cardinal Joseph Bernardin to preside over a Mass and burial ceremony for these babies. Bernardin, who was then head of the U.S. Bishops' Pro-Life Secretariat, agreed to preside at the Mass and burial ceremony at Queen of Heaven Cemetery. The Archdiocese of Chicago absorbed the expenses of the funeral home, two white caskets and burial services. The ceremony was heavily attended by the press. The Cardinal told the media he was simply performing a corporal work of mercy—burying the dead.
Cardinal Bernardin (left) prays at the burial of aborted babies at Queen of Heaven Cemetery with Archdiocesan Respect Life Coordinator, Fr. Roger Coughlin (right)
The National Organization for Women latched onto the burial of the aborted babies and used the act of charity to add new charges and new defendants to its lawsuit against me, which had been filed two years before. Vital-Med lab was sued, as well as Randall Terry, Operation Rescue, Monica Migliorino, Andrew Scholberg, Tim Murphy and Conrad Wojnar. NOW's Molly Yard claimed there were "up to a million unnamed co-conspirators" plotting to shut down the abortion industry.
The media was interested in the pro-life movement in 1989. Nola Jones, founder of Victims of Choice, visited Chicago and appeared with me on WMBI radio. Garry Wills of Time magazine visited me at the League offices and accompanied me to Sacramento, CA for a talk at a rescue rally. The following day I was arrested for standing on a sidewalk speaking to Wills and spent most of the day in jail.
In a follow-up to our successful Meet the Abortion Providers conference in 1987, the League hosted Meet the Abortion Providers II on February 18, 1989 at the Marriott O'Hare. Dr. McArthur Hill, Dr. David Brewer and Dr. Beverly McMillan testified to their involvement in performing abortions and their awakening to the reality of what they were doing. Each underwent a Christian conversion as he began to doubt whether it was ethical for a doctor to perform abortions.
Nita Whitten and Kathy Sparks told of their work in abortion clinics, encouraging women who called to ask about what an abortion entails to make an appointment, assuring them that the procedure was quick and easy and that it was their right as women. Both also revealed that there were shady financial dealings at the clinics where they worked.
In March 1989 I began a series of college debates with Bill Baird, who likes to take credit for the legalization of abortion. It was Baird who brought the 1972 contraception lawsuit, Baird v. Eisenstadt, the precedent for the right to privacy cited in Roe v. Wade in 1973.
[Back to Top]In April, Tommie Romano, Penny Kleiner, Ann and I traveled to Washington D.C. to observe and counter the much-publicized NOW March for Women's Rights. We joined a press conference covered by C-Span and CNN. Pro-lifers held stop abortion now signs—the League's new protest signs hand-made in our office. These appeared in a color photo in Time magazine's May 1 issue.
Molly Yard (center), president of the National Organization for Women when RICO charges were added to the NOW v. Scheidler lawsuit
Tommie and Penny attended the NOW meetings in conjunction with the Rally. The sessions included a "how-to" film on do-it-yourself abortions and training sessions in manipulating the media to enable NOW to claim the "pro-life" title and in infiltrating the churches.
The Pro-Life Action League held its ninth annual Awards Brunch at the Marriott O'Hare. The guest speaker, Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, attracted the attention of local abortion advocates. His talk was interrupted by an invasion of the "Janes," a group of women who performed illegal abortions prior to Roe v. Wade. They waved coat hangers and blew whistles until they were ushered out of the banquet hall.
I was named in a second RICO lawsuit filed by the town of West Hartford, CT in June 1989. Perhaps emboldened by NOW's outrageous and ever-growing NOW v. Scheidler RICO suit, West Hartford enlisted the assistance of NOW's attorneys in an attempt to apply the racketeering laws to pro-life rescuers. I had never been to West Hartford, CT, but was nonetheless at the center of the new suit.
In early July 1989 the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, permitting the first restrictions on abortion since Roe v. Wade. The ruling approved Missouri's law barring public employees from assisting in abortions and prohibiting abortions in state hospitals. The Missouri law also required doctors to conduct viability tests on fetuses believed to be twenty weeks or older.
In the wake of the Webster decision, the League launched a massive campaign to educate Illinois priests and enlist their help in mobilizing Catholic parishioners in the fight against abortion, in the hope of placing restrictions on abortions in Illinois. Each priest in Illinois received a letter and collection of photographs of the aborted babies retrieved from a garbage dumpster behind a Michigan Avenue abortion facility. We asked the priests to preach on abortion and to encourage their congregations to demand that public officials protect human life.
Members of the League staff joined the audience at the Oprah Winfrey Show in July when her guests were Judie Brown, Dr. Beverly McMillan, NOW President Molly Yard and abortion advocate Judith Widdicombe. The League's Tommie Romano was able to give an emotional testimony that women are lied to by abortion providers.
[Back to Top]Faye Wattleton, head of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, visited Chicago in September to speak to one of the group's local affiliates. The League was on hand to greet Wattleton, carrying placards with life-sized pictures of her face and statements of what Planned Parenthood stands for: teen sex clinics, teen pregnancy epidemic, black genocide, planned barrenhood. The September 13 Southtown Economist featured a photo of the demonstrators with the Wattleton placards on the front page.
In the fall of 1989 the League learned that Edward Allred, owner of California-based Family Planning Associates, had purchased Chicago's Albany abortion facility and opened another downtown, as well as referral offices in Schaumburg, IL and across from Bogan High School on Chicago's South Side. Tim Murphy alerted South Side pro-lifers and the president of the bank that leased the office space to Allred. We brought enough pressure to bear that the bank evicted Allred. Two Chicago aldermen introduced an ordinance to prohibit abortion facilities and referral offices in close proximity to schools.
In response to a pro-abortion alderman's outburst about pro-lifers trying to legislate morality, I uttered my now-famous comment: "For those who say I can't impose my morality on others, I say, just watch me." With the Allred clinics operating in Chicago, the League stepped up its sidewalk counseling activities.
The League's lawyers had deposed Molly Yard when NOW expanded its lawsuit against me and the League. In November we took an aggressive stance and sued Yard and NOW for defamation of character. (Yard and NOW's then vice-president Patricia Ireland had called me an "arsonist" and a "bomber" at a press conference in 1988.)
I spent 120 days on the road in 1989, speaking in over forty cities, spreading the League's approach to pro-life activism across the U. S. and Canada, emphasizing the Chicago Method of sidewalk counseling. As the year drew to a close the League released our blockbuster video, Meet the Abortion Providers, a documentary on the testimonies of former abortion providers who told their stories at the League's Abortion Providers conferences.
Jerry Horn, a pro-life activist from Appleton, WI, joined the Pro-Life Action League staff in 1990. Jerry had organized Walk America for Life, along with his colleague and pastor, Norm Stone, and Melody Green of Last Days Ministries. The Walk presented "Baby Choice," an 18-week aborted baby, to the American people as Jerry arranged for rallies and talks all across the country.
While in New York for a meeting with Cardinal John O'Connor, I learned that abortion proponents were holding a "Rejoice for Choice" service at the Madison Avenue Baptist Church on January 19. Three other pro-life activists and I infiltrated the congregation.
After listening to praise for women who had had the moral courage to have an abortion, as the group stood to sing "O God, Our Help in Ages Past," we pro-lifers stood up and held large photographs of aborted children. We were quickly ushered out of the church by New York City police officers. The pastor decided not to press charges.
In March the League held its first national seminar on sidewalk counseling, featuring Andrew Scholberg, Jeannie Hill of Denver and Frances Shipley, who worked with Msgr. Philip Reilly of Brooklyn to found the Helpers of God's Precious Infants. The League's Jerry Horn, who is also a master chef, provided a gourmet lunch for the attendees.
Dr. Jack Willke and the National Right to Life Committee decided to hold a huge pro-life march in Washington DC during Cherry Blossom season. The rally featured Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Dr. James Dobson and Rep. Henry Hyde. NRLC picked up on the League's trademark stop signs and distributed thousands of red and white stop abortion now signs to marchers.
[Back to Top]The League was notified by Glen Ellyn residents that Fay Clayton, pro-abortion attorney in the NOW v. Scheidler lawsuit, was scheduled to speak at a meeting of the DuPage County Chapter of NOW on June 19 at St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church. I attended the talk with forty pro-lifers, including Jerry Horn, Andy Scholberg and Tim and Bea Murphy.
When Clayton lauded the Roe v. Wade ruling which created the right to abortion, Horn called out, "Not for long!" Clayton assumed the comment came from me and asked me to keep my comments to myself. When I advised her that it was Jerry Horn who had spoken, Clayton replied, "Jerry Horn. You're next," referring to the fact that she planned to depose Horn in the NOW case.
Clayton was challenged by Tim Murphy when she referred to his retrieval of the aborted babies' remains as "theft," and by Bea Murphy when she claimed that unborn children are not persons. I led chants of "Life Yes, Abortion No," which prompted Clayton to pick up her briefcase and walk out of the church.
In connection with the NOW v. Scheidler RICO suit, NOW's attorneys released a list of 207 "co-conspirators," including some people neither I nor any other pro-life activist had ever heard of. The League published the list and encouraged those on it to contact the NOW attorneys and ask why they were included.
On June 25, 1990 members of the League joined representatives of several other pro-life organizations in New York to confront media censorship and distortion, distributing packets of materials to those attending the national convention of the Newspaper Guild. The League used New York as the launching point for its Truth in Media Caravan, visiting other cities around the country to highlight the media's role in promoting abortion.
The Pro-Life Action League brings its 1990 Truth in Media campaign to the Chicago Tribune headquarters on Michigan Avenue
In late June 1990 the American Life League hosted United '90, a national pro-life conference and TV rally. The League's assistant director Jerry Horn took a brief leave of absence from the League to help coordinate Unity '90.
The League led more than 500 pro-lifers in the annual Independence Day Parade in Des Plaines, IL in response to the announcement that the local NOW chapter would be marching. NOW managed to recruit only twenty-seven participants.
A legal victory was won on October 10 when Judge Daniel Mahoney of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the West Hartford, CT multi-million dollar RICO lawsuit filed against me and nineteen other pro-lifers.
In October Ann was invited to participate in a pro-life conference in Paris. While there she met with Senator Bernard Seillier, the leading pro-life member of the French Senate. She also met with nurse and pro-life activist Francoise Robin, who coordinated demonstrations at a hospital where abortions were performed. Robin and pro-life doctor Brigitte Guglielmena were very interested in the League's Chicago Method of sidewalk counseling and in the video, Meet the Abortion Providers, which had been translated into French by Patrick Bray of Tours, France.
Pro-life press conference in Paris, 1990 (from left): Michel Raoult, Ann Scheidler and Patrick Bray
Ann, who speaks French, made a presentation at a press conference organized by the largest pro-life organization in France, the Association for Conscientious Objection to all Participation in Abortion (AOCPA), and spoke at the national meeting of pro-life representatives from the provinces of France. It was clear that French pro-lifers are relying on the pro-life movement in the United States to provide guidance in the international battle against abortion.
[Back to Top]Early in 1991, Chicago pro-lifers were happy to learn that the Park Medical Center, an abortion facility on Chicago's North Side which had been the site of many anti-abortion demonstrations, a lock-and-block rescue, a car rescue and weekly sidewalk counseling, had closed. Calls to Park Med were forwarded to Allred's nearby Albany abortion clinic, but at least there was one less killing center in the city.
In February 1991 a Pro-Life Action League sidewalk counselor spoke with a young woman scheduled for an abortion at Family Planning Associates, who had conducted a pregnancy test and reported to the woman that she was pregnant. The sidewalk counselor accompanied her to Aid for Women, a pregnancy resource center, for counseling and another pregnancy test.
This test came out negative, so Aid for Women did the test again. Once again, negative. Later that day the woman took yet another pregnancy test at a public health clinic, and it, too, was negative. The young woman was grateful that she was saved by the sidewalk counselor from undergoing an abortion procedure when she was not even pregnant. The League had been alerted by several former abortion clinic workers that it is routine to do "abortions" on non-pregnant patients and pocket their money.
Rescue at Park Medical Center, Mother's Day 1989
More than 150 demonstrators picketed the Albany abortion clinic on February 23 to highlight the racist leanings of Albany's owner, Dr. Edward Allred. Sidewalk counselors regularly distribute copies of a San Diego Union article in which Allred speaks enthusiastically about aborting Hispanic and black babies. They also distribute summaries of the malpractice lawsuits that have been filed against Albany and Allred himself.
Two days prior to the large Saturday protest, Pastor Danny Maynard of High Praises Church led a rescue at Albany so police were on hand as soon as the picketers arrived. Pastor Maynard brought a busload of demonstrators from High Praises and strolled onto the clinic parking lot to talk with police. Although the clinic administrator was clearly unhappy to see Maynard back at her clinic, she did not order him off the parking lot or demand that he be arrested.
I spoke at several banquets in the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan in mid-February and addressed students at the University of Saskatchewan and two high schools. During a picket of a hospital in Saskatoon, I led the twenty-five picketers right into the hospital lobby. While we were praying for the babies aborted there each week, a security guard grabbed me by the collar and tried to shove me down the stairs, an action caught on camera and aired on local TV news.
The League's 11th annual Awards Brunch March 3 at Drury Lane Oakbrook honored Bishop Rene Gracida of Corpus Christi, TX. Bishop Gracida earned the respect of the pro-life movement when he excommunicated an abortionist and two abortion clinic directors after warning them of the evil of their activities.
[Go to Part 2] [Back to Top]