Conference to host US pro-life crusader
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Monday October 21, 2002 18:30
by hasta la vista baby
AN anti-abortion campaigner who has spearheaded the closure of more than 100 abortion centres is due to address a pro-life conference being held in Belfast later this week.
Sunday Life - 21 October 2002
Conference to host US pro-life crusader
By Ashleigh Wallace
AN anti-abortion campaigner who has spearheaded the closure of more than
100 abortion centres is due to address a pro-life conference being held
in Belfast later this week.
American pro-life campaigner Joe Scheidler has been invited to attend the
conference by Precious Life, the Belfast-based group which has organised
the event in the Europa Hotel on Wednesday.
Mr Scheidler, said to have been instrumental in helping to close around
100 clinics throughout the US using non-violent means, will be joined by
the Rev Edward Martin who over the past 18 years has organised prayer vigils
outside abortion centres.
Also invited to speak will be Karen Black, founder of Women4Women.
The conference is being held ahead of a judicial review of Northern Ireland's
abortion law taken by the Family Planning Association, who have called for
clarification on the existing abortion laws here. The decision is due any
day now.
"We are encouraging people to come to this conference to hear the voices
of pro-life heroes like Joe Scheidler, said Bernie Smyth of Precious Life.
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5the shocker - imagnise shutting down 100 abortion centres by PEACEFUL MEANS!!! off with his head - the terrorist!
Hmmmmmmm.
The guillotine is to humane for the bastard...let him da..da..da..dangle
Dis guy should be deported, any chance that he might be black. On the other hand, he will have the overwhelming support of all potential babies in the country. Personnally, I believe that we should get them before they grow up and put us all in nursing homes.
It is Scheidler himself who claims to use 'peaceful means'. I have done a lot of research on him and he is very close to a lot of the bombing clinics wingnuts. People who have attended his conferences have gone home and bombed clinics and attacked staff. He is a sort of 'politcal wing' for the more extreme bods. He sets up umbrella groups and instigated most of the 'Operation Rescue' operations in the States in the early 1990s. A lot of his connections were exposed in a court case in the States, including his supportive letters to people imprisoned for the murder of clinic staff.
He is the ideological mentor of Youth Defence and Precious Life and has played a background role for years in relation to extremist wing of the anti-choice movement, both in Irleand and the US.
Sunday Life – 27th October 2002
Pro-life preacher named as racketeer
Ulster visitor lost Mafia busting lawsuit
By Ciaran McGuigan
AN American pro-life preacher, who addressed anti-abortion meetings across Ulster last week, is a "racketeer and extortionist".
Joe Scheidler is the head of the fervent Pro-Life Action Network in the US, and publicity released before his tour of anti-abortion rallies says he was instrumental in helping to close 100 clinics throughout the US by "non-violent means".
But four years ago, he lost a lawsuit which named him as an "extortionist, racketeer and conspirator".
That action, based on a litany of attacks and threats on medical staff and US clinics, was fought under legislation designed to bust Mafia godfathers.
Damages of around $$350,000 were later ordered to be paid to two clinics targeted by pro-life campaigners.
And the 35-page decision against Scheidler included a US-wide injunction prohibiting protesters blocking or obstructing clinics, or impeding women gaining access to clinics.
The action was only allowed to proceed after a Supreme Court decision held that Scheidler could face legal action under the anti-racketeering laws, despite the fact his motivation was religious and not financial.
The subsequent ruling of the US District Court in Chicago in 1998 means Scheidler is a 'religious gangster'.
He insists that his methods are "non-violent" and, after his appeal against the court decision was thrown out last year, is set to take his case to the US Supreme Court in December.
He told Sunday Life: "The suit against us was an abuse of the law. They came up with a figure of over 100 attacks (on clinics and staff), but only cited four in court.
"The case against us was very vague and we will be challenging it before the Supreme Court."
Scheidler was in Ulster to speak at a number of rallies organised by the Precious Life group, ahead of a judicial review of abortion laws here.
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