For Immediate Release
Contacts: Eric Scheidler, Communications director, Pro-Life Action League, 630-896-1200, 773-251-8792 (cell), Amber Dawe, TC Public Relations, 312-422-1333, amber@tcpr.net
(Chicago, Ill.)—In response to Notre Dame University inviting President Barack Obama to deliver the commencement address there May 17, the Pro-Life Action League will erect two large billboards located near the South Bend, Ind., campus.
The billboards, to go up May 4 on the Indiana Toll Road, Interstate 80/90, will read, “NOTRE DAME: Obama is pro abortion choice. How dare you honor him,” along with a picture of a baby in utero sucking its thumb. They also will list a Web address, NotreDameProtest.com, where visitors can get information on the protests planned during the graduation weekend at Notre Dame.”
“These billboards will be seen by hundreds of thousands of motorists, including most of the families coming to Notre Dame for the graduation exercises,” said Eric Scheidler, the League’s communications director. “They will help make the direct and irrefutable connection between Barack Obama and abortion.”
The League and its national director Joe Scheidler, a Notre Dame alumnus and former teacher there, already have called on the university’s president, Rev. John Jenkins, to rescind his invitation to Obama. They have protested at the university, and promise to return to decry Obama’s appearance on May 17 if Jenkins’ invite stands. More than forty Catholic bishops and scores of pro-life leaders have written Jenkins, urging him to cancel Obama’s talk.
“As scandalous as the Obama invitation is, it presents us with a welcome opportunity to highlight Barack Obama’s pro-abortion record—something which was largely concealed by the Obama campaign and the media during last year’s campaign,” Scheidler said. “Obama’s extreme pro-abortion agenda is out of step with the majority of Americans, and that news is finally getting out, thanks to this controversy.”
One of the League’s billboards will be located on Interstate 80/90 east, half a mile east of the Elkhart exit No. 92, about 15 miles east of the Notre Dame exit, and the other on Interstate 80/90 west near Rolling Prairie, about 25 miles west of the Notre Dame exit. The League has rented the two billboards for 30 days each, so they will be in place for two weeks leading up to the Notre Dame commencement, as well as two weeks afterward.
The Michigan-based pro-life group Citizens for a Pro-Life Society also contributed to the cost of the billboards.
About Pro-Life Action League
Pro-Life Action League was founded by Joseph M. Scheidler in 1980 with the aim of saving unborn children through non-violent direct action. Through prayer vigils outside abortion facilities and sidewalk counseling, the League reaches out to abortion-bound women and couples with abortion alternatives, confidential counseling and access to pregnancy resources.
Since July 2007, the League has been at the center of the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood’s flagship abortion facility in Aurora, Ill., dubbed, “Ground Zero” of the abortion battle by abortion supporters and opponents alike. The League has closed eight abortion clinics in Chicago alone and nearly a hundred across the country.
The Pro-Life Action League is a nonprofit organization, supported solely by private donations. For more information, visit www.prolifeaction.org.
