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You are currently browsing the archives for the Sidewalk Counseling category.
A second police officer consults with Officer Stevens (sitting in the car) while pro-lifers (left) pray outside of Planned Parenthood in Chicago.
Just when things might be looking up for pro-lifers facing Bubble Zones everywhere, since Pastor Walter Hoye’s Bubble Zone arrest was overturned last week, Officer Stevens of the Chicago Police Department reminds us that it’s not over until the law is gone.
Officer Stevens was the first on the scene on Saturday, August 28th. I still don’t know why he was even there.
There were two sidewalk counselors down the street, outside of the fifty foot bubble, and I was standing, motionless, 8-10 feet from the door of the clinic.
Perhaps it’s because several women took the literature I gave them, since the inexperienced “deathscort” standing alone at the doorway wasn’t as quick at pushing the girls through the entrance as some of the others are. Planned Parenthood doesn’t like when the girls carry copies of the lawsuits that have been filed against them into the clinic, I suppose.
Walter Hoye (right) with Ann and Joe Scheidler in Hawaii last year
In Oakland, California, Pastor Walter Hoye started praying at an abortion clinic when two elderly women asked him to join them because most of the clinic’s clients were African-American.
A quiet, devout man, Hoye began to counsel the women coming to that clinic. And he saved babies. So, in short order, the City of Oakland passed a bubble zone ordinance to try to keep Pastor Hoye and the two older women from reaching out to women and offering them a real choice.
Pastor Hoye was arrested under the ordinance, in spite of the fact that he actually abided by the stipulation not to reach into the 8-foot floating bubble around the abortion clinic clients. He refused to pay a fine and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. [Continue reading ...]
August 26, 1995—The League sponsors a sidewalk counseling training seminar at the Radisson Hotel in Lincolnwood, Illinois, where 100 pro-lifers receive instruction on the Chicago Method of sidewalk counseling, which focuses on alerting those entering an abortion clinic of the various lawsuits filed against the facility and its staff.
There are two very different stories you find when you search the news for “ACLU” and “Illinois” today.
The first is a story about the ACLU suing to protect the rights of private citizens to videotape police officers at work. I’m on the ACLU’s side on this because of my experiences with the police and Planned Parenthood deathscorts after the passage of the Chicago Bubble Zone (more on this below).
The second is concerning the challenge filed by the Thomas More Society Pro-Life Law Center (TMS) in Chicago. They are trying to transfer the Parental Notification case from Appellate Court to the Supreme Court in hopes that the Supreme Court will hear the case and allow the 1995 law to finally be enforced. [Continue reading ...]
The Pro-Life Action League is excited to announce an affiliation with Matthew Kelly’s Dynamic Catholic apostolate. Let me tell you a little bit about this opportunity.
Last spring my daughter Cathy invited me to join her family for a talk by Matthew Kelly at a large parish in suburban Chicago. It was the third day of the mission and the church was packed to capacity—nearly a thousand people, many of whom had come for the first two days as well.
Tremendous outcry has arisen in the past year after it was learned that the national office of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has been funding abortion, contraception, same-sex “marriage,” and legalized prostitution.
It’s painfully obvious that the CCHD is in need of reform, and in Chicago, its local Archdiocesan office has taken that responsibility very seriously.
Given the revelations about the CCHD’s history of supporting dubious organizations, it certainly has had its share of critics — as well it should. And to his great credit, Rey Flores, the new director of the Chicago CCHD office, has taken an irenic approach in reaching out to the most outspoken ones and asked them to suggest groups that they believe are deserving of grants from the Campaign.
A recent LifeSiteNews article spoke very favorably about the changes being made in the Chicago CCHD office under Flores’ leadership and noted that the reforms he is instituting locally would serve as a great example for the CCHD to follow nationwide. [Continue reading ...]
Joe Holland (left) was arrested by Officer Stevens (right) for standing near the entrance to an abortion clinic. Joe's court case was dropped this week.
We at the Pro-Life Action League want to congratulate the Thomas More Society and Joe Holland for their victory against the Chicago Bubble Zone earlier this week.
Joe Holland, a graduate student at Northwestern University, stopped by our office last month. He and I talked about the text of the Chicago Bubble Zone Ordinance [pdf].
I pointed out that invariably the interpretations given by the Planned Parenthood staff and the police who arrive are just wrong (see my previous blog posts here and here). Once we get the police to read the text of the ordinance, they pretty much always realize that what we’re doing is okay and we’re allowed to continue without changing anything.
This discussion followed on the heels of David Avignone’s two police encounters the week before. In those instances the police recognized that he had a right to stand near the doorway of the clinic—even if Planned Parenthood doesn’t like it. This is because the law does not give the door a bubble, it gives people a bubble that we cannot approach within. [Continue reading ...]
Ann Scheidler at Sidewalk Counseling Seminar, July 24 [Photo by Joe Scheidler]
On Saturday, July 24, I gave a sidewalk counseling seminar at St. Ansgar’s Parish in Hanover Park, Illinois. Greg and Sandy Kascewicz took the initiative to organize and publicize the seminar attended by over three dozen potential sidewalk counselors.
Many people who regularly go out to pray at an abortion clinic are reticent to approach an abortion-bound woman to offer her a chance to choose life.
Admittedly it seems difficult to intrude in someone else’s personal life an decisions. But the pro-lifer who steps out in faith to come to an abortion clinic must realize that he or she has something very valuable to offer a woman who thinks abortion is her only choice. We offer hope, life and real choice.
Escort #1 (center) tells David he must stand 8 feet away from the door, according to the Bubble Law.
Planned Parenthood may have gotten the Chicago City Council to enact a Bubble Zone around the abortion clinics, but time and time again they’ve found that they didn’t get the law they wanted.
This week was another excellent case in point.
Pro-lifers David and Darlene went to the Planned Parenthood location on Division and LaSalle to pray and counsel last Thursday. This location performs abortions six days a week, but usually pro-lifers are only there on Saturdays. This means the “clinic escorts” (”deathscorts”) are also only there on Saturdays. Coming mid-week, then, means pro-lifers can have uninterrupted conversations with clients.
David sent us his account of the day and of the police department’s efforts to “enforce” the Bubble Zone:
[Continue reading ...]
Babies this old (22 weeks) are regularly killed at the abortion clinic near our office. Today one of those babies was spared.
I didn’t expect today to turn out like it has. I woke up this morning expecting today to be like any other. But it wasn’t. Today was a blessing sent by God to cheer me and pro-lifers reading this everywhere.
John, Urszula, and I usually go to the clinic for an hour on Friday mornings. But John’s on vacation and Urszula had an errand to run and didn’t know how long that would take. So I thought, maybe we’ll just skip this week. It won’t really matter.
Urszula’s guardian angel had other plans, though, and she just didn’t feel right skipping prayer for an errand that could wait another day or two. So we met at the clinic to pray the Rosary.
The thing is, there were other prayer warriors and counselors standing closer to the door that likely would have helped her, but if I hadn’t shown up, I wouldn’t have received this blessing today that God wanted me to have.
While standing in the alley, near the parking lot of Family Planning Associates Albany Medical-Surgical Center, a visibly pregnant young woman, “Mary,” came over to us.
She needed help. She was nearly in tears.