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News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
Today the Illinois Supreme Court handed down a ruling [PDF] in Sandholm v. Kuecker, a libel case involving many of the same issues involved with my own libel suit against Planned Parenthood, Scheidler v. Trombley.
Both cases involve the Citizens Participation Act (CPA), enacted in 2007 to protect citizens from so-called “SLAPP” cases—”strategic lawsuits against political participation.” A SLAPP is a meritless lawsuit filed only to discourage free speech or protest activity. The plaintiff bringing the suit does not intend to win it in court, only to punish or intimidate the defendant by imposing the heavy costs of mounting a defense.
In the Sandholm case, a former high school coach and athletic director, Steve Sandholm, sued a group of parents and a media company for libel and slander for statements they made during an ultimately successful effort to get him fired.
Sandholm’s case was dismissed by the trial court under the CPA, citing an earlier ruling by the judge in my case, Judith Brawka. [Continue reading ...]
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards had a laugher of a letter to the editor in the New York Times this week in which she wrote:
In “He’s a Quarterback, He’s a Winner, He’s a TV Draw, He’s a Verb” (This Land column, front page, Jan. 14), Dan Barry writes about a 2010 Super Bowl commercial telling how Tim Tebow’s mother decided not to end a life-threatening pregnancy and he adds, “There was no tebowing that week in the halls of Planned Parenthood.”
That suggests that Planned Parenthood does not celebrate birth or a remarkable story like Mr. Tebow’s. In fact, the Tebow story exemplifies the health care environment that Planned Parenthood promotes — a world in which women and families are supported in the medical decisions they make for themselves and their families without government interference. [emphasis added]
Seriously? Cecile Richards actually wants you to believe that Planned Parenthood celebrates “a remarkable story like Mr. Tebow’s”? And that “the Tebow story exemplifies the health care environment that Planned Parenthood promotes”?
Maybe in Bizarro World that’s true, but not in the real world. [Continue reading ...]
Yesterday, Pro-Life Action League Executive Director Eric Scheidler, Generations for Life’s John Jansen, myself and 150 other Chicagoans attended a meeting of the Chicago Committee on Special Events to defend free speech and public protest.
With the G8 and Nato summits coming concurrently to Chicago this spring, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel has taken the opportunity to ratchet up the city’s laws governing public protest.
The legislation, which was originally proposed as a temporary measure for the summits but has since become permanent, drastically increased fines and required a permit for any gathering of people in public space. The ordinance defines a “Public Assembly”, which requires a permit, as: [Continue reading ...]
Do we pro-lifers believe a woman should have a choice of where she wants to go to college?
Or which doctor to go to?
Or what kind of car to drive?
Or what foods to eat?
Or … well, you get the idea.
Quite obviously, we believe women should have the right to choose any number of things (just as we believe men should have the right to choose any number of things).
And yet, those in favor of keeping abortion legal frequently refer to us not as pro-life, but rather, “anti-choice” — as if we were somehow opposed to women choosing anything. [Continue reading ...]
Joe and Ann Scheidler at the nativity scene at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
For the past week, my parents—League directors Joe and Ann Scheidler—have been making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They are pictured here at the creche at the Church of the Nativity, appropriately enough, since they put up two elaborate creches in their home every Christmas.
During their trip, they’re visiting all the principal sites of the Gospel story—the Sea of Galilee, Nazareth, the site of the Ascension, the Mount of Olives, and so forth. But they say the most moving of all was their visit to the site of the Annunciation at the Basilica in Nazareth.
It was in that very spot that Mary said “yes” to God’s plan for her to become the Mother of the Redeemer—a yes that has been echoed down through the ages every time a woman embraces motherhood.
No wonder my parents would find that spot so moving. Their life’s work has been to encourage all mothers, like Mary, not to be afraid of motherhood—to have the faith and hope to say “yes” even in trying circumstances like those Mary faced: poverty, oppression and scandal.
Look for a full report on their Holy Land pilgrimage after they return Wednesday. And then it’s off to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. for the tireless “Godparents” of pro-life activism!
Sign posted at Rockford’s NIWC abortion mill before its license was suspended on Sept. 30, 2011. NIWC is now closed for good. [Photo via Pro-Life Corner]
The notorious Northern Illinois Women’s Center in Rockford just became the first abortion clinic in the U.S. to shut down in 2012.
A Rockford Register Star article posted just this afternoon confirmed that NIWC’s management has decided not to reopen after having its license suspended by the State of Illinois for over three months due to serious health violations.
Why did NIWC decide not to reopen? The article explains:
The clinic’s decision is based on a lack of support from the community, the political climate surrounding the abortion issue both locally and nationally and the challenge the clinic would face in rebuilding staff, the director said.
Take a look at these reasons again:
(1) A lack of support from the community. It’s not hard to see why the good people of Rockford want nothing to do with NIWC. A creepy looking place that doesn’t sterilize their instruments and has bizarre window displays featuring signs of Jesus giving the middle finger and saying, “Even Jesus hates you” isn’t the sort of place anyone would want in their backyard. [Continue reading ...]
Stalwart activist Jim Finnegan, who joins the League on our Face the Truth Tour every summer recently led a protest of abortionist Phillip Waterman outside his sprawling estate on the Gulf of Mexico.
Check out scenes from the protest and hear Jim tell the story of another abortionist who quit after Jim led protests outside his home!
Two basic tenets of the pro-life position are: (1) abortion destroys the life of a genetically distinct, whole human being; and (2) abortion is psychologically harmful to women.
Conversely, two basic tenets of the “pro-choice” position are: (1) abortion does not destroy the life of a genetically distinct, whole human being; and (2) abortion is not psychologically harmful to women.
With this in mind, I was interested to read this recent post by Jill Filipovic at the stridently “pro-choice” blog Feministe, in which she starts off referring to some “fun facts” from Jena Pincott’s book Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies?, as highlighted in the popular mom blog Mommyish:
Well here are some fun facts: Pregnant women’s bodies are basically swimming with the cells of their fetuses. And even when they give birth, some cells remain. By the end of the first trimester of pregnancy, cells from the fetus account for one in every 50,000 cells in the woman’s body. Further along in the pregnancy, it increases to one in 1,000. Six percent of the DNA in her blood plasma also comes from the fetus. Which is interesting given some standard pro-life arguments like this:
Here is the “standard pro-life argument” Jill linked to: [Continue reading ...]
Planned Parenthood recently released their annual report [PDF] for the 2009-2010 year, and the numbers revealed some very interesting information.
Jill Stanek reports the downward trend in most of their numbers, making Planned Parenthood look like a company in decline. And, as usual, Jim Sedlak at STOPP has an intricate breakdown of everything the numbers can tell us.
But if you’ve only been listening to Planned Parenthood’s rhetoric for the last year or so, you’d never know they were the largest abortion chain in America. You might think they were a breast exam and cancer screening business who did an abortion once a few years back. [Continue reading ...]
American Family Planning clinic, Pensacola, FL [Photo by Tony Giberson, Pensacola News Journal]
Early in the morning on New Year’s Day, American Family Planning clinic in Pensacola, Florida caught fire. The fire went undetected for several hours as the night was foggy and passersby didn’t notice the smoke.
The building sustained significant damage and a suspect, Alabama resident Bobby Joe Rogers, has been arrested for starting the blaze. So far, no motive has been reported for the crime.
But even days before there was even a suspect, the media had already jumped to the conclusion that this was an act of anti-abortion violence, which may yet prove to be the case.
This is the clinic where Paul Hill murdered abortionist John Britton in 1994, for which he received the death penalty, so it wasn’t surprising to hear that mentioned as speculations about motive fly. But many in the media aren’t playing fair, and worse, they’re not giving people the whole story. [Continue reading ...]