At a recent Chicago anti-abortion rally protesting 22 years of legalized abortion, Catholic theologian Rev. Richard Neuhaus acknowledged the possibility that the troops might be weary.
“For most of us, there is a tedium, a deja vu,” he told 500 abortion opponents at the Bismarck Hotel. “We’ve done this before; we’ve been here before; we’ve said these things before.”
The abortion war has been a long one. Many of those in Neuhaus’ audience at Speak Out Illinois ’95, an event that included members of 47 anti-abortion groups in the state, had been fighting it since the early 1970s, when several states liberalized their abortion laws.
But the anti-abortion movement has no cause to despair, Neuhaus told the gathering. Indeed, it has ample reason to celebrate. Although President Clinton supports abortion rights, the November election left many activists jubilant.
“Of 99 state assemblies (in the U.S.), 89 have pro-life majorities,” said Joseph Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League. “We’re going to start having some state laws restricting abortion.
“And in Congress, we have a majority of Republicans, who have been more sympathetic to us, in both houses. The heads of almost all the congressional committees are our friends. We’ve turned the corner.”
But the anti-abortion movement also finds itself on the defensive over the violence that has erupted outside several abortion clinics. Two doctors, one volunteer escort and two staffers at clinics have been killed in less than two years.
There was no talk of changing tactics among activists at this event, which concluded with a rally outside the James R. Thompson Center.
Neuhaus rejected suggestions of a moratorium on protests.
“I think we should join with my cardinal, John O’Connor, and say, `Yes, we will call a moratorium on protests when you call a moratorium on abortions,’ ” he said.
Scheidler, who advocates such protest strategies as picketing doctors’ homes and tying up abortion clinic phone lines with nuisance calls, said he has no intention of changing course.
“We’ve been very effective,” said Scheidler, who is being sued by the National Organization for Women under a federal racketeering law over his tactics.
Those at the rally said it is unfair to assign moral responsibility for the killings to the majority of activists who protest peacefully.
Maureen Sager of Countryside drew an analogy with anti-war protesters during the 1960s.
“Many, many Americans were against the Vietnam War. There were some people who condoned violence and blew up buildings,” she said. “Yet people who were against the war were not responsible.”
“You have hundreds of thousands of activists on the streets, and four individuals who have picked up a gun,” said Rev. Kirk Heldreth, director of Operation Rescue Chicago.
Operation Rescue is a nationwide organization that conducts abortion clinic protests.
“It grieves my heart,” Jean Cortez, executive director of the Southside Crisis Pregnancy Center, said of the killings. “You don’t solve an issue like abortion through killing.”
Cortez said she has chosen to concentrate her energies on offering help to pregnant women rather than protesting at clinics.
Regardless of who bears responsibility for the violence, Rose Walsh, national director of the Professional Women’s Network, said the anti-abortion movement should issue a clear, unequivocal response to it.
“I think the pro-life community ought to call for federal marshals at the clinics to show that we care about life,” she said.
“We’re being painted with the blood of the fringe. I think it’s a shame that people think pro-lifers are fanatics.”
Abortion rights activists accept none of their opponents’ arguments. Amy Coen, president of Planned Parenthood in the Chicago area, said that anti-abortion protesters could do a great deal to discourage violence if they really wanted to.
“They would be on the hilltops denouncing it; they would insist that `wanted’ posters about people who work in health-care centers not be done, that people not be singled out with private information; they would denounce those acts that are clearly leading people to violence,” she said.
Many anti-abortion activists aim their efforts at state legislatures rather than abortion clinics. In Illinois, strategists are working toward passage of a bill that would require a parent to be notified before a single woman under 18 could get an abortion. Two versions of such a bill have been introduced.
Ralph Rivera, lobbyist for Illinois Citizens for Life, said abortion opponents are also working on a bill that would require women seeking abortions to be given information on gestational development and abortion risks and alternatives.
Both sides find themselves struggling, year after year, with the frustrations of a protracted battle with no immediate end in sight.
It is one of the few things they have in common.
“When I was in college and helping women find illegal abortions, believe me, I thought I would not be doing this all my life,” Coen said.
“After the ’73 (Supreme Court) decision, we thought it was over. Everyone is surprised and discouraged that it has gone on as long as it has.”
“Yes, I get discouraged at times,” said Mary Anne Hackett, president of the Illinois Right to Life Committee and a 22-year veteran of the cause. “It’s hard not to be discouraged when we have setbacks in court.
“But we’ve not doing this for ourselves; we’re doing it for the babies, so I feel I can’t quit. People say, `Are you still involved in that issue?’ And I say, `Is there still legal abortion?’ “
Each side holds the deep conviction that it holds the truly compassionate view. And each is determined to keep fighting.
“I don’t think that there’s any sense that we’re going to give up and go home,” Coen said. “There’s just tremendous sadness that it has escalated to this point.”
“We would have thought that 22 years was long enough, but apparently we are to be at it a little longer,” Ann Scheidler, who is assistant director of the Pro-Life Action League and Joseph Scheidler’s wife, told the prayer breakfast audience at Speak Out Illinois ’95.
“And we will be.”
