We were still reading our Winter 2003 issue of our very favorite pro-life quarterly, The Human Life Review, when we came across the bright yellow Spring, 2003 issue and noticed that the lead story by Stephen Vincent is entitled “Scheidler’s Supreme Victory.” It is an accurate, chronological and colorful seven-page review of the whole seventeen years that went to make up the event that has come to be known as NOW v. Scheidler.
Bright Future for Pro-Life
We especially like Steve’s twist at the end when he points out that at the very conclusion of the seventeen year battle, just when the case began to change dramatically as our carefully gathered evidence and superior arguments proved more powerful than NOW‘s lies, the very title of the case reversed itself before the high court to Scheidler v. NOW, and with 74 amici coming to our defense on behalf of free speech and with even the court itself making our First Amendment arguments for us, the House of Cards constructed by Fay Clayton and her abortion friends collapsed.
Steve Vincent’s conclusion is a classic, and full of promise:
The future looks bright. Against Roe and its progeny come Scheidler and his seven children and so far ten grandchildren. Two of his children, Eric, 36, and Annie, 26, work full time for the Pro-Life Action League. And they are NOW’s worst nightmare: educated, energetic, erudite and fully as determined as their dad.
Eric, whose wife recently delivered their sixth child, handles communications and the web. Annie heads Generations for Life, which educates and mobilizes young people on abortion and a range of other issues, including chastity.
Steve then quotes Eric saying,
Such a complete victory in answer to so many prayers is a tremendous encouragement to our peaceful pro-life activism . . . NOW’s long effort to thwart our pro-life work has never stopped us from saving babies and helping women, but now we are prepared to redouble those efforts.
Steve Vincent writes for the Review from Wallingford, CT. Thanks, Vince, we needed that.
Fundraiser Honors McFadden’s Memory
Also in this issue, an invitation to attend a special fundraising dinner at the Union League Club in New York City on Oct. 17, the fifth anniversary of the death of the founding editor, James P. McFadden. Among those in attendance will be William F. Buckley, Jr., Congressman Henry Hyde, Msgr. Eugene Clark, Mary Ward, Mike Uhlmann, Nat Henthoff and on and on.
Jim McFadden was one of those friends who in the midst of troubles would drop everything, including the deadline for the next issue of Human Life Review we suspect, and come to your aid. When you needed Jim he was there.
We miss him, but his talented daughter Maria is doing a wonderful job editing the Review, the quarterly that contains in-depth commentaries on the history not only of the pro-life movement, but of the culture wars of the past thirty years. If you don’t, you should subscribe to it and get a bunch of back issues.
