. . . because action speaks louder than words.
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
News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
Josh Brahm talks to teens about pro-life apologetics [Photo by Sam Scheidler]
“Phenomenal!” “Absolutely fantastic!” “I loved it!”
These are just some of the comments that sum up the reaction of the more than 140 teens and adults who attended TeenSpeak 2012, the youth program of SpeakOut Illinois, held on January 28 at the Doubletree Hotel in Oak Brook, Illinois. That’s the largest crowd we’ve ever had at a TeenSpeak conference!
The day began with an engaging and enthusiastic talk entitled “Making Abortion Unthinkable: The Art of Pro-Life Persuasion,” by Right to Life of Central California’s Josh Brahm. Drawing from his experience as one of few pro-life speakers who has formally debated leaders from “pro-choice” organizations like Planned Parenthood and NARAL, Josh emphasized the need to “focus like a laser beam” on the humanity of the unborn child when talking with someone who sees nothing wrong with abortion.
The audience loved Josh’s talk. High school student Sadie Huddleston remarked, “It was so informative! This talk truly brought out the issue of abortion and clearly informed me of ways to approach and how to answer pro-choicers.” [Continue reading ...]
A recent Associated Press article by writer Carla Johnson reported that some abortion clinics in Illinois have gone up to 15 years without an inspection, and that several other abortion clinics in the state—including all of those run by Planned Parenthood—aren’t licensed or inspected by the state at all.
In response to inquiries from Johnson, Pro-Life Action League Executive Director Eric Scheidler provided numerous documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding abortion clinic inspections. He was also quoted in the article:
Anti-abortion activist Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, said Illinois is “one of the most pro-abortion states in the nation” and he believes it gave the clinics “a pass.” The state has shown “a systematic unwillingness to step away from the ideology and look at these facilities objectively,” he said, calling for more stringent inspections.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards had a laugher of a letter to the editor in the New York Times this week in which she wrote:
In “He’s a Quarterback, He’s a Winner, He’s a TV Draw, He’s a Verb” (This Land column, front page, Jan. 14), Dan Barry writes about a 2010 Super Bowl commercial telling how Tim Tebow’s mother decided not to end a life-threatening pregnancy and he adds, “There was no tebowing that week in the halls of Planned Parenthood.”
That suggests that Planned Parenthood does not celebrate birth or a remarkable story like Mr. Tebow’s. In fact, the Tebow story exemplifies the health care environment that Planned Parenthood promotes — a world in which women and families are supported in the medical decisions they make for themselves and their families without government interference. [emphasis added]
Seriously? Cecile Richards actually wants you to believe that Planned Parenthood celebrates “a remarkable story like Mr. Tebow’s”? And that “the Tebow story exemplifies the health care environment that Planned Parenthood promotes”?
Maybe in Bizarro World that’s true, but not in the real world. [Continue reading ...]
Do we pro-lifers believe a woman should have a choice of where she wants to go to college?
Or which doctor to go to?
Or what kind of car to drive?
Or what foods to eat?
Or … well, you get the idea.
Quite obviously, we believe women should have the right to choose any number of things (just as we believe men should have the right to choose any number of things).
And yet, those in favor of keeping abortion legal frequently refer to us not as pro-life, but rather, “anti-choice” — as if we were somehow opposed to women choosing anything. [Continue reading ...]
Sign posted at Rockford’s NIWC abortion mill before its license was suspended on Sept. 30, 2011. NIWC is now closed for good. [Photo via Pro-Life Corner]
The notorious Northern Illinois Women’s Center in Rockford just became the first abortion clinic in the U.S. to shut down in 2012.
A Rockford Register Star article posted just this afternoon confirmed that NIWC’s management has decided not to reopen after having its license suspended by the State of Illinois for over three months due to serious health violations.
Why did NIWC decide not to reopen? The article explains:
The clinic’s decision is based on a lack of support from the community, the political climate surrounding the abortion issue both locally and nationally and the challenge the clinic would face in rebuilding staff, the director said.
Take a look at these reasons again:
(1) A lack of support from the community. It’s not hard to see why the good people of Rockford want nothing to do with NIWC. A creepy looking place that doesn’t sterilize their instruments and has bizarre window displays featuring signs of Jesus giving the middle finger and saying, “Even Jesus hates you” isn’t the sort of place anyone would want in their backyard. [Continue reading ...]
Two basic tenets of the pro-life position are: (1) abortion destroys the life of a genetically distinct, whole human being; and (2) abortion is psychologically harmful to women.
Conversely, two basic tenets of the “pro-choice” position are: (1) abortion does not destroy the life of a genetically distinct, whole human being; and (2) abortion is not psychologically harmful to women.
With this in mind, I was interested to read this recent post by Jill Filipovic at the stridently “pro-choice” blog Feministe, in which she starts off referring to some “fun facts” from Jena Pincott’s book Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies?, as highlighted in the popular mom blog Mommyish:
Well here are some fun facts: Pregnant women’s bodies are basically swimming with the cells of their fetuses. And even when they give birth, some cells remain. By the end of the first trimester of pregnancy, cells from the fetus account for one in every 50,000 cells in the woman’s body. Further along in the pregnancy, it increases to one in 1,000. Six percent of the DNA in her blood plasma also comes from the fetus. Which is interesting given some standard pro-life arguments like this:
Here is the “standard pro-life argument” Jill linked to: [Continue reading ...]
Ann Scheidler talks to reporter Mary Jo Ola after the January 4 hearing [Photo by John Jansen]
Several of us from the Pro-Life Action League attended a public hearing in Chicago this morning regarding the fate of Rockford, Illinois’ notorious Northern Illinois Women’s Center abortion facility, which was ordered closed by the Illinois Department of Public Health on September 29, and has remained closed since.
The hearing was called to order by Administrative Law Judge Cynthia Ramirez, who asked the parties in the case to identify themselves. Harold Hirschman, counsel for NIWC, and Eva Byerly, attorney for the Illinois Department of Public Health and representing the State of Illinois, did so. Judge Ramirez then noted that only the parties in the case were allowed to speak during the hearing.
Byerly told the judge that an agreement had been reached between the State and NIWC yesterday afternoon, and was signed this morning. Hirschman concurred.
Judge Ramirez then said that since an agreement had been reached, the case was dismissed.
The entire hearing lasted no more than two (2) minutes. Judge Ramirez then exited the conference room.
The reporters present were just as mystified as the rest of us, since they seemed to think there would be no story for them to report. They immediately approached Byerly and asked her about the details of the agreement, but she refused to comment, and then exited the conference room. [Continue reading ...]
It’s been said that if someone commits murder, it could very well lead to theft, breaking and entering, cheating at cards, and even fibbing.
So it should come as no surprise when we see stories like this one about Atlanta abortionist Tyrone Malloy:
A metro Atlanta physician and his former office manager have been charged with Medicaid fraud after they billed the government nearly $400,000 for abortion services – which are barred from federal funding – and for ultrasounds not performed, authorities said. …
According to the indictment, between Dec. 9, 2007 and Aug. 9, 2010, the defendants billed the Georgia Medicaid program approximately $131,615 for new patient visits when, in reality, the visits were for elective abortions.
The Georgia Medicaid program is funded jointly by the state and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Under federal law known as the Hyde Amendment, federal funds cannot be used for elective abortion services; nor are abortions covered by Georgia Medicaid, the indictment states.
Malloy and Warner also are charged in the indictment with billing Georgia Medicaid about $255,024 for detailed ultrasounds that actually were never performed during the same period from 2007 through 2010.
We found out recently about a new campaign called My Abortion, My Life.
Based in Cleveland, they’ve recently placed ads on the city’s buses as part of their effort to start the “long process of” — wait for it — “de-stigmatizing abortion in our society.”
Campaigns like this that set out to normalize abortion are doomed to fail.
Why? Because they’ve always failed. And there’s no reason to believe things won’t be different this time.
Remember the “I Had an Abortion” T-shirts released in 2004?
If you don’t, you’re not alone. Even after a big publicity splash when they were introduced, they were — to the surprise of exactly no one — never very popular. (And, what’s more, the online store that once sold them is no longer accessible.)
Then, two years later, Ms. Magazine tried a similar campaign. It, too, was a flop. As League National Director Joe Scheidler wrote at the time: [Continue reading ...]
I wouldn’t exactly call it the highlight of Advent, but today marked the return of an annual experience for me since I signed up for Planned Parenthood’s e-mails a few years back: receiving an e-mail from Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards wishing me a Merry Christmas “healthy and safe holiday season.” (See the message in its entirety here.)
Of course, the message was really just a fundraising appeal. It contained three links to their donations page within the message itself, not to mention the big pink “GIVE NOW” button that was impossible to miss. Only one sentence of the e-mail was written in boldface — because, of course, this was the one thing they wanted to focus their members’ attention on, so as to gin up donations:
Opponents of women’s health haven’t given up—day in and day out, they’re attacking Planned Parenthood and every woman’s right to make her own medical decisions.
“Opposing women’s health,” “attacking women’s rights” — same old, same old. We’ve heard it all a thousand times before.
Note also that Richards trotted out the tired old “Choice on Earth” slogan for this year’s Christmas holiday message.
What this tells us is that Planned Parenthood has nothing new to offer.
I have to agree with Richards on at least one point, though. Her opening paragraph reads: [Continue reading ...]
