Tom Ciesielka

AP Images/ Mel Evans

The City of Chicago on Wednesday dismissed its case against Andrew Scholberg, who was arrested while standing outside Family Planning Associates, a late-term abortion facility on the north side of Chicago, for allegedly blocking access to the clinic and violating Chicago's controversial "mini-FACE" ordinance, a local version of the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The complaining witness from the clinic and arresting officer did not appear in court.

"We are pleased that the City of Chicago has dismissed these false charges against a man who was properly and legally exercising his First Amendment rights on the public way," says Peter Breen, executive director and legal counsel at the Thomas More Society. "He did nothing wrong, and was peaceful. The police commander has to stop these baseless arrests and the filing of frivolous charges."

Joe Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League, is responding to the Chicago Tribune's article, "State abortion records full of reporting gaps," which reveals that thousands of abortion complications have gone unreported.

The front-page article shows that not reporting abortions is not only illegal but unethical, because it's the only way that the state can know what types of complications have occurred, and how many women actually got abortions. Also, by not reporting abortions, the state may have allowed abortion providers to operate "off the books."

Scheidler is not surprised by the findings, and his entire letter to the Tribune is below:

The following is a statement from Joe Scheidler, National Director, Pro-Life Action League on Dr. Bernard Nathanson:

The pro-life movement lost a powerful voice in defense of unborn children in the recent death of former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson.

Along with Lawrence Lader he had founded NARAL (then called the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws). He had performed abortions enthusiastically for many years, directed the largest abortion facility in the Western world, and by his own accounting was responsible for 75,000 deaths. As difficult as it is to say now, at the time of his pro-life conversion many years ago, I did not quite trust him. I was skeptical of his story that he didn't realize abortion was the taking of a human life until he saw an ultrasound. Perhaps he just seemed too matter-of-fact about what he'd done, without the contrition that his role in the abortion business would warrant.