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Chicago Planned Parenthood Faces Lawsuit Over Libelous Ad

Ad deliberately confuses Pro-life Action League Joe Scheidler with local activist Eric Scheidler

By Peter J. Smith

AURORA, Illinois, September 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Chicago Area Planned Parenthood faces legal action unless it recants recent public statements that accuse pro-life protestors at the construction of a new abortion clinic in Aurora of a history of violence and inciting others to violence.

The Thomas More Society sent a letter to Steven Trombley, the President and CEO of the Chicago Area Planned Parenthood, September 7, demanding that Trombley recant the libelous statements he made in his letter to the Mayor and the Aldermen of Aurora and retract the Planned Parenthood ad published in the Aurora Beacon, defaming Joe Scheidler, the Pro-Life Action League Network, Eric Scheidler and the Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood.

Trombley's Planned Parenthood has been fighting pro-life advocates Eric Sheidler, Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood, and others over the construction of a new abortion facility in the city of Aurora. Eric Scheidler and the Fox Valley Families had been coordinating protests including a peaceful 40 day vigil after discovering Planned Parenthood's intention to build a new clinic as quietly as possible in Aurora. 

Trombley sent his letter dated September 4, 2007, to the mayor and aldermen of the City of Aurora defaming the pro-life opposition to the facility as "zealots", who "have a well-documented history of advocating violence against both persons and property as well as other related criminal activity."

For added effect, Planned Parenthood issued an advertisement featuring a burnt-out Planned Parenthood clinic with the words: "DON'T LET THE EXTREMISTS DENY VITAL HEALTH CARE TO THE PEOPLE OF AURORA." (http://www.jillstanek.com/PP_Ad_9-10%5B1%5D.pdf)

The ad then subtly accuses the Pro-life Action League Network (PLAN) and director Joe Scheidler of leading the Aurora protests and having a history of "criminal activity" and violence, although as the Thomas More Society points out, Joe Scheidler and PLAN have had nothing to do with the Aurora protests.

Instead, it appears that Planned Parenthood has libeled Scheidler and PLAN for the sole purpose of using them as "red herrings" deliberately to confuse the public. In truth, it is Eric Scheidler, a resident of Aurora and coordinator of Fox Valley Families - not PLAN's Joe Scheidler - who has led the peaceful 40-day vigil against the new abortion clinic under construction.

The Thomas More Society went on to demand that the Chicago Area Planned Parenthood repudiate the "121 crimes" it falsely alleges Joe Scheidler and PLAN to have committed, which were all laid to rest by the US Supreme Court in NOW vs. Scheidler. The 1998 verdict of the Chicago jury against PLAN was reversed on the basis that most of the "crimes" were "peaceable, non-violent direct action" such as advocated by civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, and the four counts of violence were dismissed after they were discovered to have been supported by falsified evidence.

"Those opposed to your new facility have a First Amendment right lawfully to protest against your proposed killing of human beings you deem 'unwanted,'" warned President and Chief Counsel Tom Brejcha of the Chicago Thomas More Society. "Yes, you may disagree with their point of view, but you may not smear their good names and reputations with libelous falsehoods."

Brejcha warned Planned Parenthood that it has until this Tuesday evening to recant its statements or face legal consequences for libel.

A large scale, fully readable copy of the Planned Parenthood ad can be found here:
http://www.jillstanek.com/PP_Ad_9-10%5B1%5D.pdf

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