Fall 2006 ACTION NEWS | VOL. XXV No. 3
Due to its length, this story is divided into three parts.
Pro-Life Action Fights Back, 1998-2005
by Joe Scheidler
We knew from the very beginning that the real purpose behind the NOW v. Scheidler case was to disrupt our effective pro-life efforts. The abortionists and the radical feminists at the National Organization for Women could see the impact we were having and they had no rebuttal to message. So they sought to silence us in the courts.
Scheidler grandson Aaron Miller sits beneath one of the billboards that featured his picture and inspired many pregnant women to seek help
We were determined not to let them succeed. During the 1998 trial we continued our life-saving work at the League. We ran a campaign to raise funds for ultrasounds for the clients of the Women's Center, a crisis pregnancy center near both our office and an abortion clinic. I gave talks in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, Alabama and New York, and several in Illinois during the trial.
In the summer of 1998, undaunted by the guilty verdict, we launched a nationwide billboard campaign featuring a photo of my grandson, Aaron Miller, at the age of fourteen months, picking up stones from the alley behind our house. The billboard read, See the World Through Your Child's Eyes, and included the number for a crisis pregnancy hotline. Over five hundred billboards were displayed in Illinois, Indiana, California, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. An analysis of the phone calls to the 800 number revealed a significant increase in calls from the areas where the billboards ran.
Pro-Abort Bradley at Notre Dame
In early fall 1998 we learned that presidential hopeful Sen. Bill Bradley would be a guest professor at Notre Dame University during the fall semester. Hoping that the university administration was somehow unaware of Bradley's strong pro-abortion stance, we contacted Notre Dame Provost Nathan O. Hatch and President Fr. Ed Malloy and were told that Bradley would not be speaking about abortion, but about public service.
League pickets Notre Dame on game day over Bill Bradley guest lectureship
The League and an ad hoc group of Notre Dame alumni started a letter writing campaign to convince Notre Dame to disinvite Sen. Bradley. When that failed the League led a series of protests. We attended Bradley's first lecture and questioned him about his support for abortion. He confirmed that he stood by his vote against banning partial birth abortion. We hired small planes to fly over Notre Dame Stadium during every home game, trailing signs like Bradley=Abortion and Dump Bradley. And we picketed along Angela Boulevard—the main road into the university—on Oct. 31, as football fans poured into the campus.
Notre Dame never backed down, nor did they acknowledge that they should be more circumspect in their invitations to guest lecturers, but they certainly were forced to answer hundreds, perhaps thousands, of letters from alumni and pro-lifers who were troubled by the Bradley fiasco.
Battling Planned Parenthood
That fall we also learned that the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic was planning to move from its near north location in Chicago to a larger facility. We sprang into action and mailed a letter to every resident within a mile radius of the new location at LaSalle and Division Streets, alerting them to the arrival of Planned Parenthood in their neighborhood and asking them to join our protest on December 19. A few did, but we received many angry calls, letters and emails. As usual the Planned Parenthood supporters were vulgar, angry and threatening. Those who were sympathetic to our plea were polite. Over 150 demonstrators joined the picket in front of Planned Parenthood, including Fr. Thomas Paprocki, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Fr. Paprocki was later named auxiliary bishop.
Just a year after the NOW v. Scheidler trial began, Justice Harry Blackmun, author of the Roe v. Wade decision, died. I had confronted Blackmun at a dinner in Chicago in 1984. He told me that he didn't like being compared with Adolf Eichmann in the leaflets we distributed in front of the Drake Hotel. I asked him how he slept at night.
Thomas More Society Founded
In late May 1999 the Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled in my favor in Summit v. PLAN and Tom Brejcha immediately filed a motion in Judge Coar's federal district court and tried to present the issues raised by the Wisconsin lawsuit. Judge Coar stated, "Frankly I don't understand the motion." Rather than try to understand it, he denied the motion.
Also in May, in anticipation of an unfavorable ruling from the district court, Tom Brejcha suggested that the Pro-Life Law Center become a separate entity, incorporated on its own. He recruited a respected board of directors and adopted the name The Thomas More Society, Pro-Life Law Center, with the mission of defending pro-life activists well beyond the life of NOW v. Scheidler.
Julie McCreevy, director of the Chicago branch of the Helpers of God's Precious Infants, the League's sidewalk counseling branch, invited Francis Cardinal George, the new Archbishop of Chicago, to officiate at a Helpers Mass and prayer vigil on June 26 at St. Sylvester Church. Following the 8:00 Mass the gathering of over a thousand processed to Centro Medico Pan Americano abortion clinic to pray for an end to abortion.
Judge Coar Finally Issues a Ruling
On July 16, 1999 Judge Coar finally issued his ruling in NOW v. Scheidler, granting NOW a nationwide injunction against me and anyone affiliated in any way with me, and imposing a judgment of $257,780 to be paid to the two named plaintiff clinics, Summit and Delaware, by the defendants. Since Operation Rescue no longer existed, Randy Terry having settled out of the case in December 1997, and since the other two named defendants were relatively judgment-free, that meant that the Pro-Life Action League was the only entity with something to lose.
In order to proceed with an appeal without having to pay the $257,780 judgment, we had to post bond. Since neither the League nor I had $257,780 and since we couldn't find anyone who wanted to lend us that kind of money, Ann and I decided that our only option was to use our house as collateral. We petitioned Judge Coar to let us use the house in lieu of cash, but Fay Clayton objected. She wanted some of the bond in cash. Due to the generosity of one of our supporters, we were able to post $70,000 in cash.
We had to have the house appraised to guarantee that it was worth the remainder of the bond. Clayton thought our appraiser was too generous, so she hired her own. Apparently he came up with a value higher than the first appraisal. She stopped objecting. Judge Coar set the arrangements for the bond and we filed our Appeal with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on August 6, 1999.
Activism Continues During Appeal
We picketed the radical feminist Lilith Fair for the second year in a row, and had a good turnout. In September I headed to Dublin and Belfast for a conference and series of talks. The Irish pro-life activists are brave, energetic and fearless. They have no intention of allowing abortion into Ireland. I found it encouraging to spend a week with these courageous leaders.
October was packed with trips—Rockford and Ottawa, IL, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. In mid-October the League hosted the "Bring America Back to Life" Conference at the Marriott O'Hare. We brought in pro-life activist leaders from all over the country to present their own effective programs. We concluded with an open session for all in attendance to ask questions and contribute ideas. Everyone declared it was the most productive pro-life conference they had ever attended.
League Releases "No Greater Joy"
For several years we had wanted to produce a video on sidewalk counseling in order to inspire and train more pro-lifers in the art of turning a woman away from abortion. We were fortunate to meet Don Carney, a video producer with strong ties to the rescue movement. In fact, Don met his wife when they were both arrested in a rescue. Don had produced an excellent video for the Women's Center and was recommended to us for our sidewalk counseling project.
Videographer Don Carney and technician Bob Barwegen discuss the taping for the League's "No Greater Joy" video
Don recruited a talented videographer and audio technician and we began taping our abortion clinic presence, League meetings and individual interviews. Eventually we had twelve hours of material. Miraculously Don was able to edit it to twenty-eight minutes of compelling testimonies that make the case for sidewalk counseling.
We added a manual, a fetal model and a selection of literature to the video to create a sidewalk counseling seminar package. "No Greater Joy" was released in May 2000 and was enthusiastically received by pro-life activists. Hundreds of copies have been shipped, and thousands have watched the video on our website and on EWTN.
Our First Face the Truth Tour
In the year 2000 we launched our first Face the Truth Tour. Pastor Matt Trewhella of Missionaries to the Preborn in Milwaukee had been doing Truth Tours for five years, focusing on exposing Planned Parenthood. We decided to adapt the concept and expose abortion to the general public. Our first Tour was set for the last two weeks of June with thirty sites. We coordinated the Tour with Monica Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society.
The Tour was a tremendous success and is now a staple of the summer for pro-lifers. Don Carney videotaped some of the sites and we later put together an 11-minute training video to spread the idea nationwide.
Our Face the Truth Tours inspired other pro-lifers in Illinois to take the Tour concept to the political front. Vote Life America began using large graphic abortion posters to protest pro-abortion politicians and encourage voters to support pro-life candidates.
Pro-Lifers Shocked by Live Birth Abortion
The pro-life community was shocked to learn that late-term abortions were taking place at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, a southern suburb of Chicago. Nurse Jill Stanek had gone public with her first-hand experience at the hospital after she comforted a baby left to die in a soiled laundry room after an abortion. She was shaken by the experience and knew she had to do something to get the hospital to stop the procedure. They tried to fire Jill, but armed with a good attorney, she was able to hold on to her job for two more years.
We joined with other pro-life organizations in Chicago to put pressure on Christ Hospital and its parent company, Advocate Health Center. With Jill's help we obtained a copy of the hospital's abortion policy. We sent a copy of the policy to every obstetrician on staff at all nine Advocate hospitals in the Chicago area, and asked if they supported the policy or not.
The League pickets Advocate Health Center headquarters in Oakbrook, IL Nov. 6, 1999 over the atrocities revealed by Jill Stanek
Advocate's response was to advise the doctors not to reply to our inquiry. They claimed that the FBI had told them that the Pro-Life Action League was a radical group and they should avoid any contact with us. Ann contacted an FBI agent who had come to our office during an anthrax scare. He assured her that the FBI does make comments about organizations and that it was not possible that the FBI had given that advice.
Pro-life groups began protesting at Christ Hospital on a regular basis and continue to do so today. Pro-lifers also continue to picket Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, IL, the other facility in the Advocate network that performs abortions. All Advocate patients are referred to Christ Hospital or Lutheran General for abortion.
Jill Stanek testified before a congressional committee in a campaign to pass the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which was signed by President George W. Bush on August 5, 2002.
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