. . . because action speaks louder than words.
League history, NOW v. Scheidler, Action News, Joe Scheidler, League staff
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Helping abortion-bound women choose life for their babies
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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
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Despite the current war on Christmas, with futile efforts like trying to substitute “Happy Holidays” for “Merry Christmas” and the rampant commercialization even in an economic downturn, what it all comes down to is that a baby was born 2,000 years ago, that that baby is mankind’s Savior and only hope for happiness. Period.
Some of us recognize with no shade of doubt that this birth in the central event in history — that Christmas celebrates the birth of mankind’s one and only hope, while for others it is just another day off.
Those who don’t know the purpose of this feast will discover it some day, that everyone from Adam on eventually comes to realize that this birthday determines each person’s eternity — those who celebrate it, those who ignore it, those who hate it, those who mock it — everyone will come to know its meaning.
The coming of Christ to earth is what it is all about, what our lives are all about. How we accept or reject Him is all that really matters in life. There is nothing else that counts. [Continue reading ...]
The second floor windows of Chicago’s Women’s Center CPC are boarded up following a fire [Photo by John Jansen]
Shortly before midnight on Saturday, June 4, a woman arrived to pray at the Perpetual Adoration chapel housed within the Women’s Center, a crisis pregnancy center on Chicago’s Northwest Side. She saw smoke coming from the second floor of the building and immediately called 911. Within minutes, firefighters were on the scene.
The second floor suffered significant damage. This is the area where the Women’s Center maintains its Family Room, with resources for the pregnant mothers they serve. The Family Room was filled to capacity with clothing, toys and baby items donated by generous supporters of the Women’s Center to meet the material needs of the mothers who face an untimely pregnancy and choose life for their unborn babies.
The fire department suspects that the source of the fire is electrical, but a full investigation will be conducted. Were it not for the Eucharistic adorers having been on site at the time, the damage would have been considerably worse.
The Women’s Center was the focus of a picket and leafleting campaign on Tuesday, May 31, organized by Walk for Choice Chicago, which appears to be associated with the Illinois Choice Action Team, the outfit that supplies the aggressive “deathscorts” at the Albany abortion clinic just a half block south of The Women’s Center. [Continue reading ...]
In one way or another, we will all miss Tom Roeser, who died on Sunday at the age of 82.
Some of us will miss him as a longtime friend. Others will miss him as a prolific and enormously informed political analyst—as evidenced in his many columns in the Chicago Sun-Times and the Wanderer, in his books, and on his popular Sunday evening talk show. Others will miss the man who was chairman of nearly everything. [Continue reading ...]
Mike Gilkey, owner of Gilkey Windows
I was speechless when I answered the phone and Theresa from Gilkey Windows told me that Mike Gilkey wanted to donate new windows for my house. Vandals had thrown chunks of asphalt through our two front windows in the middle of the night on December 2. Mike Gilkey, owner of Gilkey Windows, is passionately pro-life and as soon as he hard about the vandalism, wanted to show his solidarity with us personally and with the pro-life movement that the vandals were actually attacking.
Mike doesn’t want to just replace the two windows that were broken, but all the windows in the living room and dining room, as well as a bedroom. This is an unbelievably generous gift. If we ever had any doubts about taking risks for the sake of life, Mike Gilkey’s generosity sure wipes those away.
No doubt our vandals hoped that their middle-of-the-night attack would scare us into backing off of our commitment to the pro-life cause. That will never happen. We have dedicated that past thirty-eight years to the fight to protect the unborn. Whatever number of years God gives us in the future, we will continue along this same path.
Christmas day our entire family gathered at our home in Chicago—thirty-three of us. The place was teeming with life: seven children, four sons- and daughters-in-law and twenty grandchildren sang carols, played games, opened presents, shared a meal and reveled in God’s gracious kindness to all of us. We are incredibly blessed in both our nuclear family and the larger pro-life family we have been so fortunate to be a part of.
One of our favorite Christmas traditions is watching the George C. Scott “Christmas Carol.” We join Tiny Tim in proclaiming, “God bless us all—every one.”
Eric Scheidler with Fr Frank Pavone at the Priests for Life headquarters in New York
Last week it was my special privilege to visit the offices of Priests for Life in Staten Island, which I learned is known as the “forgotten borough” of New York City, having more in common with the Jersey suburbs. I was there to record an interview for Fr. Frank Pavone’s pro-life EWTN program, Defending Life, and to update the Priests for Life staff and pastoral associates on the League’s work.
With the amazing outreach that Priests for Life has, there are many partnership opportunities for the Pro-Life Action League. We’re the recognized national experts on the kind of creative, dynamic activism that constitutes the “next step” for many who are drawn into the pro-life movement through the outreach of Fr. Frank and the other priests and missionaries of Priests for Life. [Continue reading ...]
Eric and April Scheidler and family
[Photo by Sam Scheidler]
Last week the US Department of Agriculture released its 2009 report on the cost of raising children. Not surprisingly, the cost is higher than it used to be—22% higher than in 1960.
According to the report the average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 is $222,360, the biggest increase being in child care and education, and most of that is child care. The nation’s media is quick to emphasize the fact that children don’t come cheap. But you need to take all these number with a grain of salt ($2.99 per pound).
Three generations of pro-life men: Eric, Joe and Nate Scheidler at a protest in 2004 [Photo by Danita Covington]
This weekend we celebrate Father’s Day, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to address a common objection raised by abortion advocates: that men, because they can’t get pregnant, have no business saying or doing anything about abortion.
Of course, that rule only applies to pro-life men. If a man supports abortion, he’s more than welcome to speak out and take action. No one on the other side objects to men acting as clinic escorts (or as we call them, “deathscorts”) or joining a counter-protest—let alone paying for an abortion.
But really, the idea that men should have no say in abortion because they can’t get pregnant is nonsense. And as a son and a husband, as the brother of three sisters and, above all, as the father of six daughters, I have a deep interest in women’s welfare. [Continue reading ...]
June 3, 2000—The League holds the first of two major demonstrations at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois after nurse Jill Stanek exposed the hospital’s practice of allowing infants who survived a late-term abortion attempt to die without medical treatment. Stanek would go on to publish Pro-Life Pulse, the nation’s premier blog for pro-life news and commentary.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Pro-Life Action League. Joe Scheidler founded the League on this date in 1980 to end abortion through activism and education.
Joe and the League invite you to celebrate this milestone with a year-long retrospective of highlights from the past 30 years. Visit each day to see what happened on that day in a previous year in the League history.
Today a jury in Wichita, Kansas took only 37 minutes to find Scott Roeder guilty of first degree murder for shooting abortionist George Tiller back on May 31. Along with every other major pro-life organization, the Pro-Life Action League swiftly condemned Tiller’s murder. There is no place for violence in our peaceful movement to restore respect for the lives of unborn babies.
Shortly after the verdict was announced, I received a call from CBS radio asking for comments, and I’d like to share those reflections here.