The League’s Eric Scheidler speaks on the link between contraception and abortion at the SpeakOut Illinois conference, Jan. 28 [Photo by John Jansen]
The Pro-Life Action League, along with a coalition of Illinois pro-life organizations, presented the sixteenth annual SpeakOut Illinois 2006 on January 28 at the Drury Lane, Oakbrook, IL. Mark Crutcher, president of Life Dynamics, delivered the keynote address. He spoke about the credibility of the pro-life movement, stressing that we are in this battle to win it, not just to make a good showing.
After Crutcher’s talk, attendees could choose from six workshops on a wide range of topics: embryonic stem cell research, presented by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk; Illinois parents’ rights, presented by attorney Paul Linton; Margaret Sanger and eugenics, presented by author Akua Furlow; Planned Parenthood’s cover-up of statutory rape, by Mark Crutcher; end of life issues by Fr. Frank Pavone; and the link between contraception and abortion, presented by the League’s communications director, Eric Scheidler.
Talk Links Abortion and Contraception
The Pro-Life Action League has made the contraception-abortion link a major focus for 2006 and will hold a full-day conference on the subject in September. Eric’s presentation at SpeakOut Illinois was a preview of the League’s educational campaign to help the pro-life movement articulate the relationship between contraception and abortion. Eric is available to present this program for pro-life organizations and conferences.
At the conclusion of the dinner the Henry Hyde Life Leadership award was presented to Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life. In his address, “The Atrophy of Compassion,” Fr. Frank tied the “right” to kill Terri Schiavo to the “right” to kill the unborn based in Roe v. Wade. “Terri would be alive today if it were not for Roe v. Wade,” said Father. He closed his talk by chanting Victimae Paschali Laudes (Praise to the Paschal Victim).
The evening concluded with a memorial service for the unborn whose lives have been lost to Roe v. Wade. Vanessa Gura, a student at Trinity University, led the four hundred guests in singing, “Go Light Your World,” and Joe Scheidler and Sandy Rios led the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
