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League history, NOW v. Scheidler, Action News, Joe Scheidler, League staff
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News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
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May 21, 1991—Federal Judge James Holderman dismisses the NOW v. Scheidler case, saying there is insufficient evidence to prove the National Organization for Women’s claims and that the racketeering (RICO) charges are “nonsense.” His ruling would be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, allowing the case to go forward to trial in 1998.
May 19, 1987—League Director Joe Scheidler and staffer Andy Scholberg fly to Salt Lake City, Utah, to protest the National Abortion Federation (NAF) convention. Local TV and radio cover the protest by 100 pro-life activists outside the Marriott hotel where the convention is being held. Joe tells reporters, “We’re here to show the American people what we do 5,000 times a day. It’s a holocaust.” USA Today reports the convention has very tight security because Joe and Andy are in town.
May 18, 1994—The National Organization for Women (NOW) issues a statement saying they have amended their complaint in the NOW v. Scheidler case, first filed in 1986, adding arson and bombing to the charges against League Director Joe Scheidler and the other defendants. League staffer Ann Scheidler remarks that this is just a media stunt. Meanwhile Joe, unfazed by the latest allegations, gives a talk in Boston to a standing-room-only crowd of over 300 pro-lifers.
May 17, 2009—The League coordinates with several other pro-life groups to host a massive demonstration opposing President Barack Obama’s commencement speech and reception of an honorary degree at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The League brings in four packed busloads of pro-life activists from the Chicago area alone. Hundreds of pro-lifers line the streets leading to the graduation ceremony, holding graphic abortion photos and signs reading Shame on Notre Dame and Obama = Abortion. The League’s activists also join a student-led prayer service on campus at the famed Grotto.
May 16, 1988—League staffer Tim Murphy visits Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois (pictured right), as part of the League’s ongoing protest of abortions there. Tim distributes leaflets to hospital patients and staff, exposing the fact that this “Christian” hospital performs “selective reduction” abortions, abortions of babies with Downs Syndrome and abortions on underage girls. Despite the protest effort, the hospital would continue to perform these abortions.
May 15, 1984—League Director Joe Scheidler goes undercover at the National Abortion Federation convention in Los Angeles. He is recognized at a workshop titled, “How to Counter Pro-Life Activism” and convention organizers try, unsuccessfully, to kick him out. League staffer Andy Scholberg is physically attacked, but even then he refuses to leave. He and Joe are barred from several sessions, though, after they are recognized. The presentations they do attend are horrifying, including one in which the abortionists argue about whether the parts of the baby ought to be reassembled after a D&E abortion.
May 14, 1987—League Director Joe Scheidler watches the movie “Holy Terror” for the first time. The movie was produced by the abortion advocates in an effort to make pro-lifers look bad, but instead portrays the pro-life movement as so bold and well-organized that Joe starts proudly handing out copies. For their part, abortion advocates shelve the film.
May 13, 2008—The League conducts the first-ever Face the Truth Tour in South Dakota, visiting Sioux Falls and Rapid City at the invitation of stalwart activist Al Carlson and Citizens for Life of Rapid City. The Tour is timed to support the legislative effort to ban abortion throughout the state. League Directors Joe and Eric Scheidler (pictured right) speak at a public forum in Rapid City, which is picketed by a small group local anarchists and feminists. The League would later supply Al with his own set of Face the Truth signs, in order for Tours to continue in the Mount Rushmore State.
March 12, 2007—League Director Eric Scheidler leads 80 pro-life activists in a picket at the site of a closed abortion clinic on the west side of Aurora, Illinois, in response to rumors that the facility may be reopening soon. In fact, Planned Parenthood at that very time was constructing a massive new abortuary across town, cloaked behind a front company. This picket sets the stage for a flood of activism once Planned Parenthood’s identity becomes known.
May 5, 2007—League Director Joe Scheidler travels to Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia where the next morning he is scheduled to give an commencement address entitled “To Wait in Joyful Hope for the Coming of Our Savior, Jesus Christ” and receive the “God and Country” award from the college. Joe meets a number of old friends and reports that he is delighted with the people, the liturgy and the location, which he calls “a little bit of Heaven at the entrance to the Blue Ridge Mountains.”