. . . 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
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May 10, 1984—The first national pro-life activism conference runs begins in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, bringing together pro-life leaders interested in working together to end abortion through non-violent, direct activism. This group would later take the name of the Pro-Life Action Network (PLAN). League Director Joe Scheidler speaks to the group on picketing, sit-ins, and on his conviction that violence is never justified in the pro-life movement.
May 9, 1987—League Director Joe Scheidler leads Eureka, California pro-lifers in a picket outside of the local Planned Parenthood clinic. The group then travels to a nearby health fair to picket in front of Planned Parenthood’s booth. Joe leads pro-lifers in chanting, “Life yes! Abortion no! Planned Parenthood’s got to go!”
May 8, 2007—Judge David Coar (pictured right) enters final judgment in the long-running NOW v. Scheidler case, formally clearing League Director Joe Scheidler of racketeering charges and nullifying the national injunction imposed after Joe lost his 1998 trial. Remaining unresolved is the issue of court costs, which the law requires be paid by the losing party. After over 20 years of litigation, the amount owed to the League by NOW and the abortionists is over $70,000.
May 7, 1984—The League pickets Judge Hubert Will for his ruling invalidating Illinois’ Parental Notification law. The Chicago Sun-Times covers the story, noting that the group carried a “black robed judicial effigy” as part of the protest. After the protest, League Director Joe Scheidler hand-delivers a letter to Will’s staff accusing him of betraying the public trust. Even his staff is shocked to discover the horrible magnitude of their boss’s ruling: that now a child can undergo dangerous surgery without her parent’s knowledge.
May 6, 1987—The League holds a press conference in front of the Michigan Avenue Medical Center abortion clinic, displaying the bodies of over 500 babies aborted there and discoverd by League staff in the alley dumpster. The fetal bodies arrive in a hearse. The press conference is well attended by reporters, but most of their news stories are preoccupied with the legality of how the bodies were obtained. They express more moral outrage at the League for display of the dead children than at the abortuary for killing them in the first place.
May 5, 2006—The Pro-Life Action League’s youth outreach division, Generations for Life (GFL), issues a press release demanding that Planned Parenthood come clean about false claims made in a fundraising e-mail. GFL Director John Jansen fact checked the so-called “evil CPC” e-mail, which described an implausible campaign of harassment waged by a pro-life pregnancy center against a 17-year-old girl seeking an abortion. Jansen’s findings—including a complete lack of any police reports, despite the claim that the center convinced the police to descend on Planned Parenthood on the day of the girl’s abortion—show the scenario not only implausible but completely impossible. Planned Parenthood does not respond.
May 4, 2007—The League sponsors its first ever “Face The Truth Evening” along Chicago’s glamorous Magnificent Mile. While Face the Truth is usually presented to rush hour commuters, the modified schedule allowed League staff and volunteers to reach a different segment of the public, evening shoppers and tourists, with the graphic truth of abortion.
May 3, 1996—Congressman Henry Hyde (R-IL, pictured left) calls the League’s office to personally assure the staff that he “won’t sell out the babies,” despite the honor of being appointed chairman of the 1996 Republican Platform Committee, an honor he calls only “temporary.” He assures League Director Joe Scheidler that helping unborn babies is his life’s work. Henry Hyde would remain true to his word as long as he lived, and his Hyde Amendment, restricting federal funding of abortion, would be credited with saving over 1 million lives.
May 2, 1988—League Directors Joe Scheidler and Andy Scholberg help cooridinate an Operation Rescue demonstration of 750 pro-lifer activists at a Manhattan abortion clinic, and are among 503 rescuers arrested for sitting in and blocking the entrance to the abortuary. Also arrested are two Jewish Rabbis, the New York auxiliary Bishop Austin Vaughn and football star Mark Bavaro of the New York Giants. Abortion facilities around New York City are shut down during the week-long rescue campaign.
May 1, 1997—Overwhelmed by the volume of work demanded by the NOW v. Scheidler case, attorney Tom Brejcha (pictured right) decides to leave the law firm he works for to start a new firm devoted to helping pro-life activists. The League assists in founding the Pro-Life Law Center, later renamed the Thomas More Society Pro-Life Law Center, with the League’s Ann Scheidler, who has become intimately familiar with the lengthy, complex case, serving as Chairman of the Board.