Archive for the 'The Front Lines' Category

From an e-mail Eric just sent:

In light of recent developments, I think it would be a good idea for many of us to be present at City Hall [at] 4:30 when the mayor and aldermen will meet in a “Committee of the whole.”

Here’s the news:

1. I am informed that NO ABORTIONS were scheduled for today — in fact, it looks like no clients were being seen. So we can afford to devote some forces to prayer at City Hall.
2. We have filed an appeal with the Aurora Zoning Board of Appeals today. That appeal SHOULD have resulted in an immediate stay, with Planned Parenthood remaining closed. The City is not enforcing the law, once again, so we need to be there with our witness.

Finally, I have important news about the Prayer Vigil. Because Planned Parenthood is now open, the time has come to shift from a round-the-clock vigil to a “Life Force Team” mode.

This means that we will commit to being present at the Planned Parenthood site during ALL hours that they are open.

Please visit the vigil page to pledge to be there praying when PP is open. The calendar will now display the hours from 7-5 each day.

I’ll write again soon with more information on this new phase of our ongoing prayer campaign.

Meanwhile, please join me at City Hall this afternoon at 4:30 to pray for the mayor, corporation counsel and aldermen.

No matter where you are, no matter when you actually read this, please offer some prayers that Aurora city officials do the right thing.

And, if you’d like to follow the Aurora Planned Parenthood situation more closely, please sign up for Eric’s e-mail updates here.

“Its all I can do when one of the Scheidlers shows up to NOT run them over.”

This comment on a post at the radical left-wing blog The Daily Kos about the September 25 City Council meeting illustrates why the pro-life movement will ultimately prevail. This reason is simple:

We are not filled with hatred for our opposition. We are not afraid to talk to them. We are not content to merely assert the correctness of our position and sniff at anyone who questions us.

Take a look at that post at The Daily Kos. The original author, "Got a Grip," isn't too bad, though he or she seethes with contempt for the pro-life crowd in the City Council Chamber. But the comments are a hot bath of vitriole.

What's notable is how much time and energy is devoted to slamming me and my father and the rest of the pro-life "rabble." They really have no argument other than "pro-lifers are a bunch of knuckle-draggers."

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Two days from now, the 40 Days for Life prayer campaign begins in 89 cities in 33 states across the country. Find the vigil nearest you here.

Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, will be leading the prayers at the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in downtown Chicago (see map here) from 10:00am - 11:00am this Wednesday, September 26. I’ll be there, and if you can make it, I hope to see you there, too!

And, I just found out a few minutes ago that Father Pavone will also be praying at the Aurora Planned Parenthood site (see map here) at 12:00 noon tomorrow, Tuesday, September 25.

Saturday’s Jericho March finale at the Aurora Planned Parenthood site was a great success, with an estimated 1,000 people walking, singing, playing instruments, and, most of all, praying for the “Abortion Fortress” not to open.

We got some good media coverage, too:

• See ABC News Channel 7 video here
• See Fox News Channel 32 video here
• See WGN News Channel 9 video here
• See the Chicago Tribune story here

Here are a couple of slide shows from the Jericho March finale: (more…)

On Tuesday we returned to the Aurora City Council to respond publicly to the lies that Planned Parenthood has been telling about us and to commend the City Council for launching an independent investigation into PP’s dealings with the City.

We were assured by Mayor Weisner that adequate time would be given to complete, study and act upon the investigation, even if that meant Planned Parenthood’s temporary occupancy permit would expire on September 18. Despite the his earlier flip-flop on the deadline, I’m ready to take the Mayor’s word on this. (more…)

***UPDATE: 9/13, 1:15PM: Jeff from Chicago Pro-Life Activist has produced two video montages from Tuesday’s City Council meeting, which include excerpts from the testimonies of both pro-lifers and pro-aborts:

The Aurora Planned Parenthood situation continues to get more interesting every day. (more…)

Yesterday I reported on Planned Parenthood’s local and nationwide schemes to fight back against our popular, grassroots campaign to protect our families from their massive new “Abortion Fortress,” slated to open September 18.

That was before I read the letter [PDF] that PP/Chicago Area CEO Steve Trombley sent to the Mayor and Aldermen—three pages almost entirely given over to attacking us pro-lifers, especially my father, Joe Scheidler, including this passage:

After a six-week trial in 1998, a jury in Chicago unanimously found that the Pro-Life Action League Network orchestrated 121 crimes involving acts of threats of force or violence against women’s health facilities that offered abortion. These crimes proven at trial included . . .

Trombley goes on to list some of the outrageous accusations—testimony now known to be perjured—hurled at my father in the 1998 NOW v. Scheidler trial (not, as Trombley claims “proven at trial”). But most significantly, he fails to mention that the jury decision against my father was ultimately overturned not once but twice by the U.S. Supreme Court (2003 and 2006). (more…)

It looks like our campaign against Planned Parenthood in Aurora is really hitting home. The national Planned Parenthood organization is getting worried.

Several members of Families Against Planned Parenthood have received phone calls asking for them to support Planned Parenthood by putting up a yard sign.

But apparently they aren’t having much success. One phone solicitor hired to make these calls to all the female voters in the area admitted that not many people are willing to support PP in this public way. (more…)

I was happy to see that the Youth for Truth Rally on Saturday got a good write-up in the Aurora Beacon.

From the time YFT formed just two weeks ago, I’ve been amazed at their enthusiasm and dedication to the pro-life cause. Now, with the huge success of Saturday’s rally, I’m even more impressed.

I’ve posted below some pictures I took at the event:

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Saturday’s “Youth for Truth” Rally out at the Planned Parenthood site was a spectacular success. All 500 T-shirts were given away, and many teens will have to wait until the next Youth for Truth event to get theirs.

Hundreds of parents, grandparents and younger siblings came out to support the teens. It was a great day. (See a larger version of the above image here.)

As kids arrived at the event starting at about 12:30, they were given a T-shirt (until they ran out), and then invited to pray in the ongoing Vigil; join the swelling picket line along New York Street; or hold a large, stationary sign on Oakhurst or New York. Students came from Aurora West, Aurora East, Waubonsee, Aurora Central Catholic, Rosary, Marmion, Aurora Christian and other area high schools. Students also came from Aurora University, Illinois State and other colleges.

Drivers passing the large signs along the north side of New York first saw an eight week unborn baby, then a little born baby, and finally a toddler—a quick lesson in the continuity of human life. Along Oakhurst, large signs of Jesus holding a tiny aborted baby read alternately, “Abortion Kills His Children” and “Jesus Forgives and Heals.” At its height, the picket line on the south side of New York boasted 400 teens and their families. (more…)

**UPDATE: 8/31, 10:20AM…Today’s Aurora Beacon has an article on tomorrow’s rally. In it, Youth for Truth co-founder Mary Kate Guest of Aurora is quoted as saying, “Since Planned Parenthood targets our youth, we have to stand up and say we know that, and target youth caught in the trap.”

Last week, I mentioned that Youth for Truth is sponsoring a rally at the Aurora Planned Parenthood site from 1:00 - 3:00PM this Saturday, September 1.

This new group of Aurora area pro-life teens come from all different types of schools — public schools, Catholic schools, Christian schools, home schools, and universities. I’ve attended their first two planning meetings, and I’m amazed at their enthusiasm and dedication to the pro-life cause.

They’re counting on 500 young people coming out to stand with them against Planned Parenthood.

The Rally will include:

• Music, praise and worship
• Teen speakers on fighting for life
• A talk by Yvonne Florczak-Seeman on her abortion experience at Planned Parenthood
• Free Youth for Truth T-shirts (For those of you who missed out on the pro-life T-shirts we gave away earlier this month, here’s another chance to get a free shirt!)

See you there!

**UPDATE: 8/31, 10:20AM… If you’re on Facebook, sign up to attend the Rally here.

The rally in Aurora Saturday was huge.

The Chicago Tribune estimated a crowd of 1,000. The Aurora Beacon estimated 1,200.

The actual number may have even been higher.

Watch the local FOX News station’s coverage of the rally here.

Note Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area president Steve Trombley’s comments during the news segment:

We want people to understand that 90% of what we do is about providing contraception and basic health care, both of which prevent the need for abortions. We believe that health center will do more in one day to prevent abortions than those protesters will do in a lifetime.

Ah, yes, because everybody knows that making contraception more widely available is the answer to preventing abortion, right? (more…)

The Dallas Catholic Pro-Life Committee reports that their 2007 Boot Camp was a great success:

More than 60 youth came to the 2007 Boot Camp. They spent 5 days immersing themselves in sidewalk counseling and praying at the mills, the bio-ethics of In Vitro Fertilization and Stem Cell Research, the Gospel of Life and many other things.

They did service projects, volunteered at CPC’s and held a baby shower for 2 families in need.

They promise that next summer’s Boot Camp will be even bigger and better.

Looking forward to it!

On Monday Eric and I attended a meeting at the invitation of Youth for Truth, a new group of local pro-life teens who are planning a Teen Rally next Saturday, September 1, from 1:00 - 3:00 PM at the Aurora, IL site of Planned Parenthood’s ginormous built-under-the-radar Abortion Fortress.

The group was a good mix of teens from all different types of schools — public schools, Catholic schools, Christian schools, home schools, and universities.

At one point, one of the guys at the meeting said, “Up until two weeks ago, I didn’t know what Planned Parenthood was.”

Now, he — along with the rest of the members of Youth for Truth — are determined to do everything they can to stop Planned Parenthood. We’ll be posting more information on the September 1 Teen Rally soon.

In the meantime, don’t forget about the rally at the Planned Parenthood site (map) this Saturday, August 25 from 9:00 - 11:00AM, featuring four pro-life events in one:

1. The ongoing 40-Day Prayer Vigil, supplemented by scores more Prayer Warriors
2. An old-school picket along Oakhurst Drive and New York Street
3. A Face the Truth Tour on the busy nearby corner of New York Street and Eola Road
4. A huge leafleting drive throughout the surrounding Oakhurst neighborhood

If you come, park at Our Lady of Mercy Church at 801 S. Eola Rd. (map), one mile south of the protest site. A shuttle will operate between the church and the Rally from 8:30 to 11:30 AM.

If you can’t come, please remember us — and, more importantly, our goal of preventing the opening of this new abortion clinic — in your prayers.

The Pro-Life Action League’s home page has an update on the huge community resistance to Planned Parenthood’s plans to build a new abortion clinic in Aurora, Illinois.