Joe Scheidler, the Godfather of the American pro-life movement, went home to the Lord today. He was 92. His accomplishments, and what he meant to generations of pro-lifers, are too numerous to even approximate.
In 2018, we were inexpressibly honored to have “Grandpa Joe” accept the Walk for Life West Coast’s St. Gianna Molla Award for Pro-Life Heroism—it could just as easily have been called the Joe Scheidler award! As Joe, then 90, said that day, he would walk the whole way “Even on my bad knees!”
Steve Ertelt, writing in LifeNews, said “Scheidler was heralded as one of the early pro-life leaders to participate in protests at abortion clinics and to encourage Americans to vocally oppose abortion by speaking out for unborn children at the very abortion centers where they are killed.
Scheidler has been fighting for the rights of the unborn even before the infamous Roe v. Wade decision. After working for other pro-life organizations for several years, Joe founded the Pro-Life Action League to serve the need he saw for pro-life Americans to take bold, direct action to save babies from abortion in their own communities.
His 1985 pro-life activists manual, ‘CLOSED: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion’, put pro-lifers throughout the United States and the world to work effectively fighting abortion. Scheidler’s commitment and determination have been an inspiration for generations of pro-life activists who have followed.”
Grandpa Joe, you were a shining example to us all! We know you, and St. Gianna, and Mother Teresa, and Our Lady and all the angels and saints are praying for us in heaven!