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News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
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May 31, 1997—The International Socialist Organization hosts a “closed” rally in the Wicker Park neighborhood in Chicago to “defend abortion rights.” The meeting is so small that League Director Joe Scheidler offers to liven it up “with some facts and figures,” but he is rudely turned away by rally organizers.
May 30, 1985—Ms. Magazine highlights League director Joe Scheidler in a 25-page special on “enemies of choice” in the May-June issue, with profiles of 15 prominenet pro-lifers. Ms. declares, “Scheidler is probably the most influential anti-abortion activist in the United States.”
May 29, 1987—League Director Joe Scheidler invents the slogan, “Abortion: A baby can live without it,” recording it in his personal journal. The slogan would go on to appear on countless pro-life bumper stickers, plackard and t-shirts.
May 28, 1994—Just days after pro-abortion President Bill Clinton signs into law the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), a group of over 100 defiant pro-lifers gather at notorious abortionist Jan Barton’s clinic on Chicago’s north side to pray, protest, and sidewalk counsel. FACE imposes harsh penalties, including jail time and up to $10,000 in fines, on pro-lifers accused of blocking a person from entering an abortion facility. Local television and and print news outlets cover the protest, and pro-lifers show that they will not be cowed by the FACE law: pro-life activism will continue at America’s abortuaries.
May 27, 1984—After the League protests the flippant treatment of abortion in an episode of the NBC sitcom Buffalo Bill (cast pictured right), League director Joe Scheidler is given the opportunity to debate Kathy Kelly of the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance on the 30-minute news program Inside-Out on WMAQ-TV, the local NBC affiliate. Under the terms of the Fairness Doctrine, which would be abolished in 1987, broadcasters are required to offer the opportunity for a pro-life rebuttal to any pro-abortion statement.
May 26, 1984—The League conducts an “abortion clinic blitz,” entering ten Chicago abortuaries in a single morning to pass out pro-life literature in the waiting rooms. These “Truth Teams” are often able to convince women scheduled for abortions, sometimes enlisting the aid of their companions, to leave before undergoing the procedure. Exactly ten years later to the date, President Bill Clinton would sign into law the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) bill, imposing the possibility of draconian fines and prison sentences for engaging in this type of life-saving pro-life activity. The “Truth Teams” would virtually disappear under FACE.
May 25, 1989—The League launches a boycott of Maxwell House Coffee for not only advertising on the pro-abortion TV movie “Roe v. Wade,” but also for hiring a pro-abortion spokesperson, Linda Ellerbee, to sell its products. Pro-life groups across the nation get thousands of pro-lifers to “can” Maxwell House.
May 24, 1990—League staffer Andy Scholberg (pictured right) is rebuked by a federal judge for seeking to join an ongoing court case involving efforts to ban experiements on unborn babies. Andy tries to join the case on behalf of his own unborn child. The judge refuses his petition, and is outraged that her decision would be questioned. She even goes so far as to call the League’s efforts to become party to the case “bizarre,” when what is truly bizarre is that experimentation on unborn children would have to be banned in the first place.
May 23, 2000—League Director Joe Scheidler does a one-hour interview with Denise Coccialone on “Purely Pro-Life” about the League’s new billboard campaign. The billboards promote a toll-free number for getting help from local crisis pregnancy centers, bearing the adorable image of his toddler grandson, Aaron and the words “Choose Life.”
May 22, 2001—The League pickets the National Abortion Rights Action League’s $250-per-plate fundraiser at Drake Hotel in Chicago. Pro-Life activists show graphic photos of Baby Malachi and signs reading “NARAL supports Partial Birth Abortion.” Fay Clayton, the pro-abortion attorney for the National Organization for Women in the NOW v. Scheidler case, attends, as do many other notable abortion supporters. They are angry to have their appetites spoiled with the ugly truth of abortion.