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News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
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Students from Christian Liberty Academy reach out to abortion-bound mothers at Planned Parenthood Aurora [Photo by Eric Scheidler]
It was a beautiful morning for this past Saturday’s monthly protest at the Planned Parenthood mega-center in Aurora, Illinois. The Pro-Life Action League has hosted a protest there every month for the past five years and more since the “Abortion Fortress” opened in 2007.
Among the dozens of stalwart pro-lifers sacrificing time from their weekends to fight abortion was a large group of teens from Christian Liberty Academy, whose youthful zeal for the cause of life has become a regular feature of these monthly protests.
Several months ago, a Planned Parenthood client aggressively swerved his car at one of the CLA students and is now facing aggravated assault charges, as reported in today’s Chicago Sun-Times. The unfortunate incident did nothing to diminish the determination and activism of these dedicated pro-life students.
On the picket line at Planned Parenthood Aurora [Photo by Eric Scheidler]
Response from passersby seemed more pronounced than usual, especially from those showing their support, possibly because of the prominence of abortion in the news during the Kermit Gosnell trial and subsequent guilty verdict.
At the conclusion of the protest, I offered prayers of thanksgiving to God for giving each of us the grace not only to recognize the evil of abortion for what it is, but to come out on the street and actively do something about it—as we’ve been doing for more than five years in Aurora.
The University of Michigan’s Dr. Michael New recently wrote:
The best predictor of someone’s attitude toward abortion is his or her opinion on the morality of premarital sex. People who think that premarital sex is morally acceptable are very likely to be pro-choice. Conversely, individuals who think premarital sex is wrong are likely to be pro-life.
The ever-insightful New is, as usual, spot-on.
He then went on to say:
…I always remind pro-lifers that a promiscuous society will never support significant restrictions on abortion. While pro-lifers are good at talking about fetal development and personal responsibility, we are less comfortable with subjects such as sexual activity and contraception. Indeed, it is doubtless more difficult to advocate for sexual restraint than for the unborn. However, this is a battle in which pro-lifers must continue to engage if we are to succeed in our goal of providing legal protection to all unborn children.
In other words, the “Culture of Life” that we envision is unthinkable without chastity. This is by no means a startlingly new revelation, but we can always use a reminder. [Continue reading ...]
“Amazing!” “Really inspiring!” “I loved it!”
These are just some of the comments that sum up the reaction of the more than 150 teens and adults who attended TeenSpeak 2013 on February 2 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois—the largest crowd we’ve ever had at a TeenSpeak conference!
The day began with an engaging and enthusiastic presentation titled “Designed to Create,” by Ryan Bomberger of The Radiance Foundation. Drawing from his experience as an Emmy-Award winning creative professional, Ryan explained that in communicating the pro-life message through visual media, certain principles of design must be followed, or else the message will not reach its intended audience.
As examples, Ryan showed several engaging and impactful videos throughout his presentation, including “We’ve Been Guttmachered,” “Hell Breaks Loose,” “Meet Jonny Moses,” and, last but not least, “Unwanted,” which highlights Ryan’s personal story of having been conceived in rape and placed for adoption in a large, multi-racial family.
The audience thoroughly enjoyed Ryan’s presentation. High school student Therese Starasinich commented, “His talk got me more excited to take on action spreading the truth.” Patrick Lechner noted that Ryan’s talk “makes me want to use my job in the future for the pro-life movement.” [Continue reading ...]
SpeakOut Illinois, the state’s premiere pro-life and pro-family conference is this Saturday, February 2, and today is your last chance to get discounted early registration pricing.
This year’s theme is “50 Million and Counting: 40 Years of Roe v. Wade” and we’ve got a great lineup of speakers.
Conference speakers include Ryan Bomberger of The Radiance Foundation, who will speak on “Fatherhood in the Culture of Abortion,” and Pro-Life Action League Executive Director Eric Scheidler, who will give a talk titled “Stand Up for Life: Why Your Witness Matters.”
Other speakers include Star Parker of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), who is this year’s Henry Hyde Life Leadership Award recipient.
If you sign up before midnight tonight, the price is only $55, which includes a banquet lunch, so don’t wait another minute before registering. After today, the registration fee is $65.
Here are the details:
Event: SpeakOut Illinois 2013
When: Saturday, February 2nd, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Where: Crowne Plaza O’Hare, Rosemont, Illinois [map]
You can register here. [Continue reading ...]
Students at St. John Catholic School in Beloit, Kansas
Would you be willing to ride three hours, one way, on a bus, so you could pray outside an abortion clinic?
The students at St. John’s Catholic High School in Beloit, Kansas have done just that — and not just once, but numerous times, most recently last month.
I spoke yesterday with Andrew Niewald, a theology teacher at the school, who is eager to share the story of his students’ courageous pro-life witness in the hope that other Catholic schools will be willing to provide similar opportunities for their students to put their pro-life beliefs into action out in the world.
The students at St. John’s have been the subject of several feature articles recently, including one at LifeSite by Rita Diller of STOPP.
In it, Andrew is quoted as saying:
We tried all sorts of things, including watching The Silent Scream and other abortion videos, but that did not have the impact we needed. Once the students were out there, three or four feet from the girls coming in to have abortions, begging them not to go in, it made it so much more real. …
We could take the students to the World War II museum, let them see the memorabilia behind glass doors, but that does not have the same impact as taking them to the front lines. We take them, instead, to the battle lines, and the conviction they walk away with is tremendous.
The importance of Andrew’s observations here cannot be overstated. [Continue reading ...]
Eric Scheidler speaks at the International Pro-Life Youth Conference in Los Angeles Nov. 10 [Photo by John Jansen]
This past weekend, Eric Scheidler and I traveled to Los Angeles for the second annual International Pro-Life Youth Conference to join hundreds of enthusiastic young pro-lifers and an All-Star cast of speakers, including Lila Rose, Fr. Frank Pavone, Ryan Bomberger, Star Parker, Troy Newman, Bryan Kemper, and Kristan Hawkins.
The conference was hosted by Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust and Priests for Life and co-sponsored by several other including the Pro-Life Action League League, which provided copies of our Sharing the Pro-Life Message handbook to all attendees.
On the first day of the conference, Eric Scheidler delivered a new PowerPoint presentation provocatively titled “First Convince Them You’re Wrong”.
Eric explained that when we talk about abortion with those who are firmly committed to the “pro-choice” ideology, they very often think that the pro-life position doesn’t deserve a hearing, and that we pro-lifers are completely crazy.
Our first step, then, has to be convince our “pro-choice” audience that they need to give the pro-life position a second look. [Continue reading ...]
Two of the most exciting things going on the pro-life movement right now are:
These two dynamic forces are coming together next week at the second annual International Pro-Life Youth Conference, November 9-11 in Los Angeles.
The conference is being hosted by Survivors and Priests for Life, with the sponsorship of Ireland’s Youth Defence, Students for Life of America, such cutting-edge pro-life groups as Stand True Ministries, the Radiance Foundation—and of course, the Pro-Life Action League.
I’m proud to be one of the speakers at the IPLY Conference, along with such pro-life “rock stars” as: [Continue reading ...]
There’s an article in the current issue of the Catholic New World — the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago — highlighting four strong pro-life clubs at Chicago area high schools: St. Patrick and Mother McAuley High Schools in Chicago, Regina Dominican High School in Wilmette, and The Willows Academy in Des Plaines.
All of these clubs have used the Pro-Life Club Curriculum created by the Pro-Life Action League’s youth outreach, Generations for Life, or had members attend our TeenSpeak conferences over the past few years. Based on personal experience, I can assure you that they’re all doing great work!
If you or someone you know is interested in starting a pro-life club, contact GFL, and we would be happy to help.
This year’s TeenSpeak conference was a great success with two great talks by Josh Brahm of Life Report. But in a special surprise, Abby Johnson, who was giving the keynote address to the adults at the SpeakOut Illinois conference, came by to give a quick talk to the teens.
Her call to purity and to the hard work of keeping the pro-life movement going was so inspiring to the kids I thought I’d share it here.
Josh Brahm talks to teens about pro-life apologetics [Photo by Sam Scheidler]
“Phenomenal!” “Absolutely fantastic!” “I loved it!”
These are just some of the comments that sum up the reaction of the more than 140 teens and adults who attended TeenSpeak 2012, the youth program of SpeakOut Illinois, held on January 28 at the Doubletree Hotel in Oak Brook, Illinois. That’s the largest crowd we’ve ever had at a TeenSpeak conference!
The day began with an engaging and enthusiastic talk entitled “Making Abortion Unthinkable: The Art of Pro-Life Persuasion,” by Right to Life of Central California’s Josh Brahm. Drawing from his experience as one of few pro-life speakers who has formally debated leaders from “pro-choice” organizations like Planned Parenthood and NARAL, Josh emphasized the need to “focus like a laser beam” on the humanity of the unborn child when talking with someone who sees nothing wrong with abortion.
The audience loved Josh’s talk. High school student Sadie Huddleston remarked, “It was so informative! This talk truly brought out the issue of abortion and clearly informed me of ways to approach and how to answer pro-choicers.” [Continue reading ...]