Chicago Trib: “2nd gen activists take lead in abortion battle”
From the Chicago Tribune, today (read complete story on page 2):
2nd-generation activists take lead in abortion battle
Daughter of ex-governor and son of prominent abortion foe build reputations of their own
On the surface, Cecile Richards and Eric Scheidler couldn’t be more polar opposites.
She’s the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which is trying to open one of its largest clinics in Aurora to provide women’s health services – including abortions. He is communications director of the Pro-Life Action League, which has vowed to do everything in its power to keep it shuttered.
Richards’ side won the latest round Monday as Aurora officials said the clinic would be allowed to open…. Foes said they will continue their legal fight against the clinic.
Lost in the intractable battle is that the two opponents are second-generation activists who learned at an early age not to back down from a fight….
www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-offspring_02oct02,1,6661641.story
chicagotribune.com
2nd-generation activists take lead in abortion battle
Daughter of ex-governor and son of prominent abortion foe build reputations of their own
By Bonnie Miller Rubin
October 2, 2007
On the surface, Cecile Richards and Eric Scheidler couldn’t be more polar opposites.
She’s the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which is trying to open one of its largest clinics in Aurora to provide women’s health services — including abortions. He is communications director of the Pro-Life Action League, which has vowed to do everything in its power to keep it shuttered.
Richards’ side won the latest round Monday as Aurora officials said the clinic would be allowed to open, after the Kane County state’s attorney’s office found no evidence of wrongdoing in the effort to get a permit for the facility. Foes said they will continue their legal fight against the clinic.
Lost in the intractable battle is that the two opponents are second-generation activists who learned at an early age not to back down from a fight.
Richards, 50, is a political organizer and the daughter of former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, a hero to the left who died in September 2006. Scheidler, 41, grew up on the Northwest Side, where his father, Joe, gave birth to the Pro-Life Action League in 1980. The elder Scheidler, still active in day-to-day operations, is the man whom conservative pundit Patrick Buchanan called “the Green Beret of the pro-life movement.”
Both see themselves as championing the rights of the underdog, and this handing down of fervently held beliefs, from parent to child, provides a human back story to the familiar rhetoric of a deeply divisive issue.
For Richards, with a die-hard Democratic mother and a civil rights attorney father, dissent is part of her DNA.
“What my folks taught me early was to stand up for what you think is right,” said Richards, who at age 12 was sent to the principal’s office for wearing an armband opposing the Vietnam War and at Brown University organized janitors who were pressing for better working conditions.
“My parents both had a strong sense of social justice … and as a liberal in Texas, you weren’t in the majority. But if you saw something that needed doing, well, you just rolled up your sleeves and did it.”
The mother of three — 16-year-old twins and a 20-year-old — now lives in New York, but the thick skin she acquired in Texas has served her well.
In early 2006, barely a month into the top job at Planned Parenthood, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up an abortion rights case, South Dakota became the first state to ban virtually all abortions, and her mother was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
“It was the most exhilarating and saddest time of my life,” she recalled.
That South Dakota initiative was later rejected by voters, but her to-do list is never-ending. While she has not attended rallies in Aurora, she’s been in constant contact with local leaders and will visit the Aurora clinic next week, knowing she will be greeted by protesters. At almost 6 feet tall and a fiery stump speaker — at a benefit in Chicago this year she helped raise $350,000 — she can give as good as she gets.
“We’re only on this earth for a short time … and this job is a privilege. The opportunity to make a difference in the lives of so many people is unparalleled.”
Scheidler echoes similar sentiments — except the lives he is referring to are the unborn — the reason he has been working around the clock to thwart the opening of the 22,000-square-foot facility a mere 5 miles from the home he shares with his wife and eight children, ages 4 months to 15 years.
“Is this personal?” he asked. “Absolutely.”
Like Richards, Scheidler grew up in private schools (a third-generation graduate of Chicago’s St. Ignatius College Prep), engaging in lively debate around the dinner table, where Catholicism and politics merged seamlessly — not surprising given Joe Scheidler was a Benedictine seminarian who stopped just short of ordination.
Some of the son’s earliest memories are of picketing and protests after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion nationwide in 1973.
“I was about 7 or 8 years old when my dad showed us a filmstrip about abortion on a screen in the basement. He was convinced that all you had to do was show what abortion does — that a fetus was really just a little baby — and that Roe v. Wade would be overturned.”
But Eric Scheidler never saw himself at the forefront of a movement. While Richards has spent her adult life as an activist, Eric Scheidler preferred academia, teaching English composition and literature to college students.
Besides, as the oldest of seven children, he felt his father’s crusade was too tough on the family, something he wouldn’t want to impose on his own brood.
“My dad was away a lot,” he said. “There were financial hardships too. … We never had as much money as anyone else. And then there was the fact that it brought a lot of controversy into our lives. In college, you always knew that when someone asked what your father did for a living, you could be in for an argument that would last a year. Sometimes, it was just easier to say that my dad ran a non-profit. It was just easier not to go there.”
Scheidler’s own epiphany started in 1998, after falling away and then returning to the Catholic Church. He became intrigued with a new organization, the Gift Foundation, focusing on sexuality and marriage — one that took on not just abortion, but also birth control. He quit teaching to join up.
Four years later, he jumped to the Pro-Life Action League, where his sister Amy is also employed.
While his title is communications director, Aurora has been his debut in the spotlight — and a sign his father, 80, is comfortable handing over the reins.
“I’m very proud. … In many ways, he has done this better than I could,” said Joe Scheidler, citing a 40-day prayer vigil opposing the clinic as an example of his son’s organizational skills. “It’s an affirmation that he has caught the whole issue of what is going on in our society and feels an urgency to remedy it.”
Richards, too, sees Aurora as a turning point — a wake-up call to passive supporters who can’t remember a time when abortion wasn’t safe and legal, she said.
“I think [the battle over the clinic] will be associated with increasingly desperate measures … and that these tactics will backfire.”
– – –
Their lives in–and away from–the debate
Cecile Richards
Religion: Methodist
Education: B.A., history, Brown University, 1980
What I’m reading: “Into Thin Air.” My kids and I just trekked to Machu Picchu.
How I relax: I love to bake pies. Lemon meringue and pecan are my best.
Most valuable lesson from my mom: Don’t let your fear keep you from taking chances.
Greatest political victory: Having my mother elected governor.
Eric Scheidler
Religion: Catholic
Education: B.A., English, University of Illinois, 1989; M.A., English, University of Georgia.
What I’m reading: “Lost Tales.” I’m a total Tolkien nerd.
How I relax: Cycling and I’ve been brewing my own beer for 15 years.
Most valuable lesson from my dad: Humility
Greatest political victory: Keeping the Planned Parenthood facility closed since Sept. 18.

Something I never noticed until I saw it on FreeRepublic:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To: Pyro7480
It is not a coincidence that they named their facility this:
G emini
O ffice
D evelopment
I know that Banned Parenthood is laughing at this decision to allow them to open. They think they are GOD … Pride comes before a fall.
14 posted on 10/02/2007 3:48:48 AM PDT by missnry (The truth will set you free … and drive liberals Crazy!)
It’s nice to put on a face of good and evil.
The Woodstock generation from the 60’s are now growing even older. This generation which celebrates Abortion will soon be dying out.
America is growing more and more Pro-Life and eventually Life will win over.
Mike
This country is about to lurch to the left – not that it ever REALLY leaned toward the right.
The Roberts Court that I once feared is surprising me all the time:
High Court Won’t Hear Two Religion Cases
By PETE YOST and MARK SHERMAN
Has anyone noticed how all these reforms in America have been a process of leaving behind the conservative and going to the liberal? Slavery, suffragists, civil rights, women’s rights, right to an abortion… the list goes on. Some of you use the argument that “African-Americans were at one time not seem as people, and now they are. The same thing will happen with the rights of an unborn baby.”
But that isn’t the problem, is it? It isn’t pro-choicers who spend all our time arguing the personhood of a fetus–it’s YOU, and our voices are simply responding to yours. We do not say that abortions should be legal because fetii aren’t people–we say they should be legal on account of the woman.
You will never see a conservative reform, my friends. I’m sorry.
Leah,
Not so fast. The terms liberal and conservative have changed meaning over the decades and will continue to do so.
Franklin Roosevelt, the liberal Democrat icon, put American citizens in concentration camps and put a Klansman on the Supreme Court.
John Kennedy would be conservative by today’s standards.
Lyndon Johnson, Democrat liberal, initiated all kinds of government programs that failed miserably to solve poverty, and some argue, only worsened it.
The words liberal and conservative mean different things to different people. While its Republicans who are branded as conservative and racist, its the Democrats, who are branded liberal and enlightened who have the long racist history.
Abortion should be legal on account of the woman? Sure, like slavery was legal on account of the master, and segregation was legal on the account of the racist.
I just want to say that I have a soft spot for Cecile. I despised Gloria Feldt, everything she is, but when Cecile came on board, I had pity and sorrow.
Now- both women are equally evil, however God has placed a special burden on my heart to pray against the deception and evil that Cecile is bound by.
In fact, when her mother passed (a woman who I deeply distasted), I sent her a sympathy card. It was so hard not to write something about, “I’m sorry for your loss. Now please stop killing babies.” I didn’t want to give her the impression that I supported anything she does, but I didn’t want to take away from my purpose, which was to convey my deepest sympathies for her grief. I wanted to console, not hurt or offend. I ended up writing, “My deepest sympathies on the loss of your mother. You are in my prayers.” I wanted to say more, but I didn’t want to distract from the fact that I was truly sorry for her pain.
A few weeks later, I got a card back from Cecile (or signed on her behalf) that said something like, “So many people loved my mom” and the “support of the extended Planned Parenthood family” has been great and the best way to honor her mother’s legacy was to “keep fighting for our reproductive rights.”
I guess no good deed goes unpunished, seeings how being called “extended Planned Parenthood family” was the worst insult of my life.
I encourage you all to pray earnestly for Cecile and her soul. She is a very lost women that does not know she’s lost, and I fear that her soul is headed for eternal damnation if we don’t pray that she will repent.
Leah,
The suffragettes? Are you aware our feminist foremothers, who struggled not only for the right to vote but also for laws protecting children from exploitation, women from abuse, and to end slavery, vehemently opposed abortion?
Well said, Jacq. I sometimes forget that if not for the grace of God, there go I. Cecile will definitely be in my prayers. God love you.
I would say Planned Parenthood are like/are terrorists, like Islamic fanatics, the only thing they understand is violence, this is what they practice on a day to day basis, it’s there business. Sadly, the United States is going to pay for it’s horrble sins against the unborn, that day is coming, and no corrupt Judge, Politician or laywer will be able to stop it.
Great point, Mary
Cecile Richards is perfectly cast as Cruella Devil(le). Only it’s babies, not dalmations, and one billion and one aren’t enough to make a coat big enough to cover her backside.
All the innocent blood necessary to cover her sins was shed by Jesus on a cruel Roman cross; but she doesn’t want them covered, she wants them ignored and perpetuated. One day she will change her mind; we hope it isn’t too late. It probably will be. Sin has a way of doing that to the human heart; it’s called hardening.
Leah,
You wrote,
“You will never see a conservative reform, my friends. I’m sorry.”
Posted by: Leah at October 2, 2007 8:40 AM
Rome never saw a conservative reform; it rotted from within and was crushed by its enemies. Be careful what you wish for.
Mary,
You are correct about the liberal/conservative labels.
During the Irish potato famine liberals argued for market forces to control the price of grain to the starving Irish. Meanwhile conservatives refused to disclose how much grain was available and controlled the price at 1.5 cents a pound rather than profit from human misery.
Z
Leah,
And we (prolife) say that abortions shouldn’t be legal on account of the BABY. It is NOT the woman’s body, but the BABY’S body.
THE bottom line is that people who support abortion believe that the BABY simply does not have the right to LIVE in the pregnant woman’s (i.e. MOTHER’S) body. However, the baby has no choice, he/she cannot survive somewhere else just because it’s inconvenient for the woman.
I loved it when Ann Richards addressed the Texas Legislature.
Ann said, “If we can find the money to innoculate cattle, then we can find the money to innoculate children.”
Then the legislature relented and funded immunizations for poor kids. She was not all bad.
No doubt many Democrats are yes men for the abortion industry and other creeps, unfortunately many Republicans are yes men for other industries and creeps.
Ralph Nader helped Gore lose because environmentalists, animal lovers and others saw Gore for a fraud. If prolife folk support a third party candidate, Hillary has it made.
JTM-
I agree about her culpability, but I also have a special God-given unmerited burden for her. I got a similar burden for a woman that worked in the late-term abortion clinic where I once sidewalk counseled. We got her out of there, into a Christian school and now she has a beautiful baby girl.
Mind you that this was a woman that participated in what I detest the most, but God gave me an annointing. And God loved us so much that while we were still sinners, He sent His son to die for us, so I’m not surprised when God gives us a love for evil-doers that passes all understanding. When I met my dear friend, I expected her hands to be dripping with blood. Instead I met a very hurting, very deceived woman that just needed love, who BAM! out of nowhere I loved very deeply. Cecile needs people to love her enough to interceed on behalf of her soul, while she still slaughters children. After all, God interceeded on our behalf in our wickedness, thus we are expected to do the same.
P.S. JTM, her heart may be hardened, but I still have faith in God’s ability to break through. Take St. Paul for instance- that man was a wicked persecutor of Christians before Jesus appeared to him. There’s hope for Cecile yet. And hope for Laura and Sally and Erin and Dan and SoMG.
Actually, there is considerable evidence that Christianity was what brought about the fall of Rome.
Rome-the civilized empired that threw Christians into lion’s dens and watched them be eaten alive as a spectator sport.
For all Rome gave us (roads, aqueducts, the abacus, calendars, etc.), I’m glad Rome fell (as well as the other great civilizations like the Mayans and Aztecs who practiced human sacrifice).
Rome was incredible. Greece was even more awesome. But then, what do you expect from someone who concentrates on Classical Studies?
“But then, what do you expect from someone who concentrates on Classical Studies?”
All your posts to be written in Latin??
Lol, my Latin is a bit rusty- the last two years I’ve been concentrating on ancient greek. I took three years of Latin in high school, and will probably taking two more my next two years at high school. I’m learning Italian right now, too. I need to stop forcing languages into my head. I keep mixing them up! On my Italian test the other day, I used ‘insula’ for island, and ‘idou’ for look. Wth, brain?
” On my Italian test the other day, I used ‘insula’ for island, and ‘idou’ for look.”
Oh wow! What a foolish thing to do! Ha! mmmm… yeah, I don’t know any language other than English…
‘insula’ is Latin. ‘idou’ is Greek. I used three different languages on my Italian test. Still did all right, but boy did I feel silly!
Most impressive. I hope to learn more Latin someday.
My Italian is limited to such phrases as “Dov’e il gelateria?” and “Quanto costa?”
“Quanto costa?” Oh, I know that one! “How much does it cost”, right? I’m THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Haha!, now you’re qualified to haggle in Italian street markets…..
I didn’t say there wasn’t hope; where there’s life, there’s hope. But the scriptures do speak of a point of no return in the hardening process, where an individual as rejected light so often that darkness is all that they will have. The way to get more light is to follow the light that you have; the way to get lost in total darkness is to diss the light you have.
The further you advance into the Kingdom of light, the less there is that you won’t do for others, if you can.
The further you advance into darkness, the less that there is that you won’t do TO others, if you can get away with it.
The number of real victims you have is a good indicator of whether you are walking in darkness, or in light. And you can’t get to where Cecile and the others are without an awful lot of victims piling up along the way. I said that I hoped that she sees and concedes to light before it is too late; where did you get the idea that I thought her case hopeless? None of us is guaranteed tomorrow.
I would say Planned Parenthood are like/are terrorists, like Islamic fanatics, the only thing they understand is violence, this is what they practice on a day to day basis, it’s there business. Sadly, the United States is going to pay for it’s horrble sins against the unborn, that day is coming, and no corrupt Judge, Politician or laywer will be able to stop it.
Posted by: jasper at October 2, 2007 10:56 AM
…………………………………………
Join the National Guard Jasper and get back to me. What? They won’t take you? Already been aborted by the military?
“Join the National Guard Jasper and get back to me. What? They won’t take you?”
I already did Sally.
Rome-the civilized empired that threw Christians into lion’s dens and watched them be eaten alive as a spectator sport.
For all Rome gave us (roads, aqueducts, the abacus, calendars, etc.), I’m glad Rome fell (as well as the other great civilizations like the Mayans and Aztecs who practiced human sacrifice).
Posted by: Jacqueline at October 2, 2007 4:06 PM
……………………………
Rome gave Catholics the Vatican chica. Even after the RCC’s human sacrificies. Of the Mayans, Aztecs, Lutherns, Mennonites………
The RCC was the equivolent of theTaliban for centuries.
Perhaps it is time that Catholics take a look at their churche’s past— straight on. With absolute honesty.
Your full of poop Sally, who are you to judge what Catholics did back then? If it weren’t for the crusades, you’d be wearing a burka and a bedsheet, and praying towards mecca 5 times a day, by force.
JTM-
I agree about her culpability, but I also have a special God-given unmerited burden for her. I got a similar burden for a woman that worked in the late-term abortion clinic where I once sidewalk counseled. We got her out of there, into a Christian school and now she has a beautiful baby girl.
Mind you that this was a woman that participated in what I detest the most, but God gave me an annointing. And God loved us so much that while we were still sinners, He sent His son to die for us, so I’m not surprised when God gives us a love for evil-doers that passes all understanding. When I met my dear friend, I expected her hands to be dripping with blood. Instead I met a very hurting, very deceived woman that just needed love, who BAM! out of nowhere I loved very deeply. Cecile needs people to love her enough to interceed on behalf of her soul, while she still slaughters children. After all, God interceeded on our behalf in our wickedness, thus we are expected to do the same.
Posted by: Jacqueline at October 2, 2007 2:21 PM
…………………………………………
Thinking that God has given you special abilities is a sure sign of sociopatic illness. You can share this ‘ability’ with a long line of serial killers.
“Join the National Guard Jasper and get back to me. What? They won’t take you?”
I already did Sally.
Posted by: jasper at October 3, 2007 8:38 PM
………………..
Did what Jasper? Get rejected by the weekend warriors? Speak up.
I was in Army Reserves for 6 years Sally. No, I didn’t get rejected, honorable discharge. 62F.
Mary,
You are correct about the liberal/conservative labels.
During the Irish potato famine liberals argued for market forces to control the price of grain to the starving Irish. Meanwhile conservatives refused to disclose how much grain was available and controlled the price at 1.5 cents a pound rather than profit from human misery.
Z
Posted by: hippie at October 2, 2007 1:40 PM
……………………….
Dude, if the Irish didn’t take on the easiest form of a foreign species of a crop to grow the famine would have never happened. There were plenty of potatoes resistant to the blight.
And what the hell does how the British have dealt with the Irish to do with the United States of America?
“Thinking that God has given you special abilities is a sure sign of sociopatic illness. You can share this ‘ability’ with a long line of serial killers.”
You can be really mean Sally.
Your full of poop Sally, who are you to judge what Catholics did back then? If it weren’t for the crusades, you’d be wearing a burka and a bedsheet, and praying towards mecca 5 times a day, by force.
Posted by: jasper at October 3, 2007 8:50 PM
I have every right to judge how the RCC proved themselves to be the great whore of revelations. Murdering and torturing in the name of God is a no no. That is what they did. What? Didn’t get your ‘church’s’ history from your Latin mass? Perhaps you should learn Latin?
Bowing to Mecca is no different than genuflecting to priests to me and mine for the last 400 years.
That would be mum’s side of the family that your catholice persuasion felt all skippy over abusing and murdering.
Then there is my dad’s side that has never been a control issue for the RCC and therefore untainted by it.
Jasper,
I’ve never genuflected to priest, have you?
Of course not MK. That’s not what the Catholic mass is about.
Sally, if you need more edjucation on Catholism, please let us know.