Joe Scheidler, the founder of the Pro-Life Action League who is known as the godfather of the pro-life movement, died Monday at the age of 93, the organization confirmed.
His oldest son, Eric Scheidler, said that Joe Scheidler “devoted five decades of his long life to proclaiming the value of human life at its most vulnerable stage, the child in the womb.”
“I’m grateful that he passed away surrounded by family, in the comfort of his home, his refuge from the rigors of his pro-life mission,” Eric Scheidler said. “His memory will be cherished by the thousands whom he inspired to join him on the front lines of the pro-life movement.”
A frequent sight at anti-abortion protests, he talked to Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg in the Loop in March 2015, as he stood at Madison Street and Wacker Drive, holding a 5-foot-tall sign showing a fetus at eight weeks. He and his wife, Ann, also were handing out brochures.
At that time, greater restrictions on abortion had been passed in several states, including Arizona, Kansaas and Montana.
“I feel a change in the atmosphere. The attitudes are really changing,” Scheidler said that day.
“We’ve been doing this for years. I don’t know how many people have come up and said thanks for what you’re doing, glad you’re out here. Things are changing.”
There was also, he said, less harassment from commuters as they rushed past.
“We get some,” he said. “But not nearly the way it used to be.”
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