Phyllis Schlafly, RIP… Her Long-Lasting Battles Continue

By PEGGY MOEN

ST. PAUL — From The Wanderer, July 1, 1982, a Paul A. Fisher interview with Phyllis Schlafly — a longtime friend of and contributor to The Wanderer — following the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment:
Q. What will Phyllis Schlafly do now? Fold up her tent?
A. No, we’ve got a great movement. We’re going to keep going. We not only defeated the ERA, but we defeated (President) Carter’s plans to draft women.
We’re going to elect candidates. We’re going to work for the economic life of the traditional family. We are going to work in the education field, and we are going to work in the area of national defense.

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Which is what happened — Mrs. Schlafly continued to work on those issues up until her death on September 5 at the age of 92, at her home in St. Louis, Mo., in the presence of her family.
But her career began even before the ERA. By the time of the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment — her signature achievement — Phyllis Stewart Schlafly, the mother of six, was a noted public figure, beginning in 1964 with her authorship of A Choice, Not an Echo, credited with winning Barry Goldwater the GOP nomination for president. The book sold 3 million copies.
In 1967, she began writing the Phyllis Schlafly Report. In 1972, she founded the Eagle Forum, which now has an estimated 80,000 members, according to Fox News. In 1976, at the age of 51, she earned a law degree from Washington University Law School in St. Louis.
In saluting her, Mrs. Schlafly’s Eagle Forum summed up her work this way:
“Phyllis Schlafly spent an astounding 70 years in public service of her fellow Americans. Her focus from her earliest days until her final ones was protecting the family, which she understood as the building block of life. She recognized America as the greatest political embodiment of those values.
“From military superiority and defense to immigration and trade; from unborn life to the nuclear family and parenthood, Phyllis Schlafly was a courageous and articulate voice for common sense and traditional values.
“She authored 27 books and thousands of articles. She spoke tens of thousands of times across the United States.”
Exactly eight years ago, in 2008, The Wanderer met up with Phyllis Schlafly again, this time when she hosted “The Life of the Party,” a Republican National Coalition for Life event held at the GOP National Convention, then underway here in St. Paul.
The event’s featured speaker was Laura Ingraham, substituting for Gov. Sarah Palin.
Mrs. Schlafly told the audience she was “very disappointed,” that Gov. Palin was unable to attend; the McCain campaign had told her the previous night that Palin needed time to prepare her speech set for September 3.
But “we called it right when we sent you the invitation” to hear the governor, whom McCain subsequently chose as his running-mate.
Mrs. Schlafly showed her usual mettle when, in two separate episodes, a protester ran up on stage to disrupt the gathering. The second protester held up a large pink sign that said “Pro-Life Equals Universal Health Care.”
“You’re not on the program,” Schlafly told her.
Then-Cong. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) praised Mrs. Schlafly at the event, saying, “When it wasn’t cool to be pro-life, Phyllis Schlafly was pro-life.”
In a foreshadowing of this year’s markedly pro-life Republican platform, Schlafly concluded that 2008 program by announcing that the RNC is presenting “the most pro-life platform language in history.”
Afterward, in comments to The Wanderer, she explained that the platform was an improvement over past ones because “it also talks about the ban on partial-birth abortion and the Born Alive Protection Act….Obama was wrong on both of those.”
Here are some tributes to Phyllis Schlafly from friends and associates of The Wanderer:
“The nation has lost an iconic leader, and my team and I have lost a colleague and friend,” Fr. Frank Pavone, president of Priests for Life, said. “The contributions Phyllis Schlafly has made to the life of our nation, politically and culturally, for well over half a century, are incalculable. And right up to her last days, at age 92, she never lost the clarity of thought, or the boldness to express that thought, nor the passion for making a difference and the wisdom to know how.
“There are countless people alive today who would have been aborted but for the work of Phyllis Schlafly. Advocates and opponents of the so-called Equal Rights Amendment acknowledge that but for Mrs. Schlafly’s efforts, the ERA would have been adopted. And if it had been approved as originally written, it would have been used by liberal judges to strike down virtually any pro-life law.”
“Phyllis was a courageous woman who loved her country and was not afraid to stand up for what she believed in. Her defense of the family was one of her great contributions. She was a fine example and genuine inspiration for all of us. May she rest in peace,” said Dr. Timothy O’Donnell, president of Christendom College, which presented her with its Pro Deo Award in 1996.
“Phyllis is the reason the Republican Party is a pro-life party,” said Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, as reported in LifeSiteNews. Schlafly “inspired millions to the fight against abortion and the disastrous Equal Rights Amendment which would have made abortion a constitutional right.”
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said: “Phyllis Schlafly will be remembered for her courageous leadership in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. With the political establishment, the media, and academia all arrayed against her, she organized a grassroots movement that not only stopped the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) but became the foundation for the pro-life, pro-family movement we have today….
“Her love for God and this country drove her to fight for the constitutional principles that founded this nation. We honor Phyllis for the lessons that she taught us all. I’m proud to have stood alongside her for faith, family, and freedom.”
Conservative publisher Richard Viguerie said: “I last saw Phyllis in July at her ‘Life of the Party’ pro-life luncheon on the Tuesday of the 2016 Republican National Convention. At the event Phyllis hosted 500 conservative leaders, elected officials, and pro-life delegates to the Republican National Convention.
“I was honored to be seated at her table along with two of my other heroes, former Notre Dame football coaches Lou Holtz and Jerry Faust. While she was often conveyed from place-to-place in a wheelchair by one of her staff she had lost none of her fire for America or for conservative principles.
“Somewhat like Moses, although she had seen the Republican Party adopt in her words ‘the most conservative platform ever’ and she was unapologetic in her belief that Trump would finally realize her vision and break the kingmakers, Phyllis would not live to see the campaign she inspired win.”
Phyllis Schlafly is survived by six children, sixteen grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband Fred. The Mass of Christian Burial for Phyllis was celebrated at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, St. Louis, Mo., on Saturday, September 10.
As an example of why her work must continue, here’s another excerpt from her 1982 interview with Paul A. Fisher on the ERA:
Q. Turning to the military aspects which involve placing women in combat. That, of course, is serious. But what about women and men sharing common restrooms, locker rooms, and dormitories. Isn’t that also a problem?
A. Do you mean in the military, or generally?
Q. Generally?
A. Well, let’s go back to what the ERA would do. ERA would require every law, federal or state, every federal and state regulation — everything that is covered by public funding — to be sex neutral: to treat men and women exactly the same.
A lot of people have testified, including the presidents of the American Bar Association, that it would require that sex be treated exactly like we now treat race.
I think the best prediction of what the ERA will do is to ask yourself the question: how do we do it on race? All their lawyers say the Supreme Court has never held that sex has to be treated just like race. You ask yourself how we treat it on race, then you will know what will happen under the ERA.
Q. That would mean across the board?
A. Sure, that means across the board, and it does quite a lot to the school systems of this country. For example, it would wipe out all the exceptions in Title IX, which allow all-girl or all-boy schools, colleges, sports, social events, dormitory living facilities, fraternities, sororities, or whatever.

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Phyllis’ last column, dated August 31, 2016, was titled, “Setback for the Transgender Agenda,” and reported: “But in a last-minute reprieve worthy of an old Western movie, a federal judge in Texas has just called a halt to the new transgender rules. Judge Reed O’Connor of the federal district court in Wichita Falls, Texas, ruled in the late evening of Sunday, August 21, that the ‘Dear Colleague’ letter was not a valid regulation and that schools across the country are free to ignore it.”