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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
News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
A packed house of pro-life notables gives Joe Scheidler a huge standing ovation [Photo by Sam Scheidler]
Saturday evening was a gala celebration for pro-life activists. It was officially a tribute to Joe Scheidler, but it served as a “class reunion” for pro-life activists from all over the U. S.
Monica Miller, executive director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, and a long-time friend of the Scheidlers, did a fantastic job of bringing pro-life friends and family together at the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza in downtown Chicago.
As Joe arrived at the Holiday Inn he was greeted by a cheering group of teens from Crusaders for Life, who literally rolled out the red carpet for him amid dozens of yellow “LIFE” balloons. They clamored for autographs and shouted out, “Joe, Joe!” Check out a slideshow of pictures from the event plus a video tribute to Joe after the break! [Continue reading ...]
Pro-life billboard obstructed by pro-abortion sign [Photo by Heather Charles, Chicago Tribune]
Last Monday, Life Always launched the Chicago edition of their billboard campaign to highlight the high number of abortions among African Americans.
On site at the time were some angry members of the local community and women from Black Women for Reproductive Justice, who were offended by the message: “Every 21 minutes another possible leader is aborted.”
Over the weekend a group of “social workers and community members,” who, according to the Chicago Tribune did not want their names mentioned, covered two of the three billboards with fabric and their own messages. [Continue reading ...]
New pro-life billboards on Chicago’s south side [Photo by Ann Scheidler]
On Tuesday morning, Life Always, the pro-life communications group responsible for the controversial pro-life billboard in New York, unveiled the first of their new billboards on Chicago’s south side, and Joe and I headed down for the unveiling ceremony.
This billboard features a picture of Barack Obama and the text, Every 21 minutes our next possible leader is aborted. Life Always plans to erect thirty such billboards on the south side of the city in predominantly African-American neighborhoods. [Continue reading ...]
The recent mayoral election in Chicago drew national attention since it involved the end of Richard M. Daley’s 22-year tenure and the “swapping out” of Rahm Emanuel and Bill Daley as Chief of Staff for President Obama. In that election the issue of abortion never came up.
But concurrent with the mayoral campaign was the election of aldermen in the 50 Chicago wards. In those wards where a candidate failed to garner 50% of the vote, there is a run-off election on April 5.
Monday’s Chicago Tribune ran an article comparing the two candidates in the 45th Ward—which, coincidentally, includes both my own home and the Albany Medical Surgical Center abortion clinic. (The article, titled “Party lines drawn in sand across 2 wards,” is only available in the print version.)
There is a consistent prayer presence and sidewalk counseling ministry at Albany, and there have been four 40 Days for Life prayer vigils held there. Clinic personnel frequently call the police on the prayerful, peaceful pro-lifers, and deathscorts have begun showing up on Thursdays and Saturdays.
The Tribune article begins with this opening paragraph:
As aldermanic candidate John Garrido shakes hands and knocks on doors around the 45th Ward, potential voters consistently ask him one question, “Are you against abortion?”
Cardinal Joseph Bernardin celebrates the burial Mass for thousands of aborted unborn babies in 1988.
On March 9, Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn signed legislation ending the use of the death penalty in the State of Illinois. Quinn cited statements by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, as well as his reading of the Bible, as “very helpful in reflecting on this issue.”
Quinn drew his inspiration for his position on the death penalty from Fr. Alphonse Spilly’s biography of Bernardin, The Gift of Peace, which focuses on the cardinal’s struggle with a false accusation and with cancer.
Although The Gift of Peace does not address the issue of the death penalty, it is a fact that Cardinal Bernardin spoke of the death penalty as an attack on the value of human life as part of his theory of the consistent ethic of life. He stated, speaking as the director of the U. S. Catholic Bishops’ Pro-Life Secretariat, “We have also opposed the death penalty because we do not think its use cultivates an attitude of respect for life in society.” [Continue reading ...]
“Woman, 61, gives birth to own grandchild”
That headline sounds like it came straight from the National Enquirer. But it didn’t. That was front page news in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune.
Naturally, it caught my attention. I am a grandmother. And I’d like to say that I would do almost anything for my children.
But serving as a surrogate mother and giving birth to a grandchild? That’s a bit over the top.
The Tribune article is all sweetness and love. The new baby, Finnean Lee, is pictured with his grandmother (birth mom) and mother (egg donor). Finnean’s dad, the sperm donor, didn’t make it into the picture, which is interesting in itself.
League staffer Corrina Gura (right) being interviewed for FOX News Chicago
Several weeks ago I wrote about a new partnership that the Pro-Life Action League has formed with Chicago’s Resurrection Hospital to assist women who change their minds in the middle of a 2-day D&E abortion procedure.
This hospital’s new protocol—known as the “Bethlehem Project”—is now making national news.
The Chicago Tribune carried a front-page story about it on Wednesday, February 9. The story has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and the Sun-Sentinel in South Florida, among other markets.
Additionally, just this afternoon League staffer Corrina Gura was interviewed about Resurrection’s new protocols by a local FOX-TV reporter outside Chicago’s Albany Medical Surgical Center abortion facility for a story set to air Friday, February 11. Be sure to check out the extensive press coverage of this story after the break! [Continue reading ...]
![Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society presents David Bereit with the 2011 Henry Hyde Life Leadership Award [Photo by Ann Scheidler]](http://prolifeaction.org/pix/2010/speakout2011.jpg "speakout2011")
Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society presents David Bereit with the 2011 Henry Hyde Life Leadership Award [Photo by Ann Scheidler]
The 20th annual SpeakOut Illinois conference was a great success.
Keynote speaker Ken Blackwell of the Family Research Council began the day by sharing a bit of his personal family story and his education at Xavier University in Cincinnati.
He told the crowd of 300 that when he left for college, his grandmother, who did not graduate from high school, told him that three books were the most important he would ever open – his date book, which would reveal how he spent his time, his checkbook, which would reveal what he valued and the Good Book, which would give him direction for his life.
Four concurrent workshops provided attendees with new information in their work for the sanctity of life. The League’s executive director Eric Scheidler gave his listeners important insights into the most effective way to communicate one’s pro-life commitment, using the League’s Sharing the Pro-Life Message as a guidebook to talking about abortion with friends, family and colleagues. [Continue reading ...]
Fr. Alfred Tumwesigye blesses the new statue at Resurrection Hospital in Chicago [Photo by Ann Scheidler]
Sidewalk counseling is a difficult job at best. Trying to offer a different perspective and a better choice to women who have apparently thought about what to do with an unplanned pregnancy and have chosen abortion is no easy task.
For those of us who take up that challenge and stand in front of the abortion clinics, every avenue of support is vital. We depend heavily on the counselors at the pregnancy resource centers so that we can promise real help to women in crisis. But sometimes the pregnant moms need even more than a pregnancy center can provide.
Here in Chicago we are blessed with a new resource in support of life. Resurrection Medical Center, responding to our very specific needs in the case of late term abortions, has initiated a special protocol to handle women who change their minds after beginning a two or three day abortion procedure. [Continue reading ...]
The Pro-Life Action League has learned that the Illinois Choice Action Team (Illinois’ NARAL affiliate), is holding what they call a “Speakout” in Chicago on Friday, January 21.
They want women to testify that abortion is good for them, and they want “pro-choice moms” to come and talk about how to “protect Roe v. Wade.” It sounds like NARAL and the Illinois Choice Action Team are feeling a bit defensive. Have they noticed finally that they are losing the battle for the public mind?
Ordinary Americans are waking up to the injustice of abortion. Nobody can ignore the truth that an unborn baby is a human being. They have seen enough ultrasound images that they no longer buy into the argument that the baby in the womb is just a blob of tissue.
So now the pro-abortion crowd has to turn to attempts to prove that it’s OK to kill a small human because a grown-up human is more important. That’s a hard sell. But the Illinois Choice Action Team is giving it a try anyway. [Continue reading ...]