By DONALD DeMARCO
John Braine, author of Room at the Top, and one of Britain’s most successful novelists, provided a practical guide for aspiring novelists in his 1974 book, Writing a Novel. He advised that every novel should contain at least one highly improbably occurrence. I had never aspired to being a novelist, but was fascinated by this bit of advice. Life itself is much larger than a novel. Therefore, extraordinary coincidences should happen more often than once.
I was at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport waiting for my connecting flight. I thought to myself, “Who would I like to meet at this moment among the eight million or so people who reside in greater Chicago?” I had a number of chance meetings with Joe Scheidler within recent memory and I thought I would like to meet him again. I awakened from my momentary reverie, looked up and there he was — Joseph M. Scheidler in person — walking directly toward me.
He was not at all astonished by this remarkable coincidence and we passed the time discussing pro-life matters. I could not help thinking that Providence had arranged this get-together for some special reason about which neither of us could be aware of at the time.
Joe Scheidler was born in Hartford City, Ind., in 1927. He earned a BA in journalism from Notre Dame and an MA in communications from Marquette. He spent four years as a Benedictine monk and eight years studying for the priesthood. He left the seminary in 1959 thinking that he would have made a miserable priest if his bishop would not have allowed him to practice his strong anti-abortion beliefs.
The last words his mother said to him on her deathbed at the age of 82 were, “Joe, I’m so proud of your pro-life work. Keep it up.”
Scheidler and his wife Ann have seven children and numerous grandchildren.
In 1980 he founded the Pro-Life Action League that emphasized sidewalk counseling as perhaps the most effective activity a pro-life person can perform. As a result, many women chose not to go through with their scheduled abortions and several abortion clinics were closed down. In 1985, his book CLOSED: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion was released.
“No social movement in the history of this country,” he wrote in the introduction, “has succeeded without activists taking to the streets.”
Three different publishing houses were involved in its production: one to print it, a second to publicize it, and a third to correct ideological changes made by a feminist editor. CLOSED stresses courtesy, refraining from shouting back at hecklers, not blocking pedestrian or traffic, and not littering. It states that nine-tenths of counseling is listening and insists that counselors always provide a “peaceful presence.”
The approach is nonviolent and respectful, but its mission is to save the lives of unborn babies.
By the time of the book’s release, Scheidler had appeared on more than 500 radio and television shows (including ABC-TV’s Nightline, the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, and The Phil Donahue Show). His organization had 6,500 members working for him, most of whom were deeply committed to his brand of activism. He was as effective, though in ways that were always nonviolent, as he was controversial.
Political observer Thomas F. Roeser said of him that “it’s not inaccurate to say he’s the Martin Luther King of the time of the Montgomery bus boycott.” Syndicated columnist Patrick J. Buchanan called the Pro-Life Action League “the Green Berets of the pro-life movement.” At the same time, a priest accused him of Gestapo tactics.
But his real nemesis was the National Organization for Women. In 1998 a federal court decided against Scheidler and in favor of NOW. He was found guilty of interstate racketeering, assessed fines, and sentenced to prison. The United States Supreme Court, however, unanimously overturned the decision in 2003. Undeterred, NOW once again filed suit against Scheidler and that was upheld by another Federal Court. However, the Supreme Court once again, in 2006, unanimously ruled in Scheidler’s favor, granting him damages against NOW.
The initial lawsuit against Scheidler, involving the RICO Act, was curious. The U.S. Federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) of 1970 was originally written to target organized crime. It allowed courts to attack “enterprises” that engage in a “pattern of racketeering.” Scheidler and his Pro-Life Action League, which is a nonprofit organization, could hardly have been classified as a “racketeering enterprise” under RICO.
I first met Joe Scheidler at the Hyatt Regency in Washington, D.C. I recognized him from his photographs and my first words to him were, “You’re Joe Scheidler.”
“What’s left of me,” he quipped. There was the embattled warrior. But certainly, undefeated and not without a sense of humor.
His motto, taken from Cardinal Newman, was to treat one’s enemies as if they would one day become your friends. He believed in the possibility of people changing their minds and hearts. He fervently believed that justice can prevail over injustice, truth over falsity, and ethics over impulse.
Since 1980, Scheidler has spoken in more than 1,000 towns and cities, in 48 of the 50 states. Abroad, he has conducted on-site workshops and lectures in Canada, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. He has been as indefatigable as he has been determined.
Scheidler’s activities provide a litmus test that reveals the moral state of the nation. Abortion divides the country into parties that are so morally distant from each other that they no longer employ a common language. The abortion issue reveals that America has become a nation of strangers.
The notion that the National Organization for Women, for whom motherhood should be prized as a blessing, can accuse a pro-life group of being a group of gangsters demonstrates the depth of this division. Also revealed is the shocking disparity in thinking that exists within the judicial system.
To commit oneself to life and justice, as Scheidler did, is to put your own life at risk and assume the possibility of becoming a victim of injustice. Scheidler fought a great battle and won. We can thank him and, as much as we are able, follow in his footsteps.
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