April 7 Educational Meeting: Euthanasia

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, was the special guest speaker at People for Life's first annual Pro-Life Dinner last October. He gave a wonderfully informative speech, and we are very glad to have recorded it.

We are going to present the speech in its entirety at a special meeting, a week from Monday. If you were not at the Dinner, we strongly recommend attending the meeting. If you were at the Dinner, we won't be surprised if you would like to hear Alex's presentation a second time. It is important that all of us understand what the legalization of doctor-imposed death would mean for the future of the medical profession and how it would affect the value of every human life and the dignity of every human being. It is crucial that we are able to outmaneuver the "death paddlers" who are working tirelessly to change our laws, state by state.

Mark you calendar:

Alex Schadenberg Presentation

Monday, April 7, 2025, 6:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.

Blasco Memorial Library, Room 219 (second floor)

160 E. Front St., Erie, PA

There will be time for questions and discussion after viewing the presentation. A selection of educational materials will be available at now cost.

Seating will be limited. Please RSVP to help us make sure the event is not overbooked: (814) 882-1333 voice / text or office@peopleforlife.org.

48th Erie March for Life: May 3

Erie's own March for Life, organized by People for Life, will be here before we know it. The March will take place on May 3, on the Saturday one week before Mother's Day weekend.

The March will start at 11 a.m., but please arrive by 10:45. The entire event will conclude at approximately 12:30 p.m.

We really, really hope that everyone reading this will try extra hard to make this March for Life the largest one to date. Many of our parents and grandparents endured snow and ice to march in January for decades. With the March now scheduled in warmer weather, let's not let them down by staying home or hitting the golf course instead of standing strong for the pro-life cause.

Speaking of weather, the March will go on, rain or shine. No doubt about that!

We also hope you will help get others excited about the Erie March for Life. You can download the our poster in PDF format to print and display as widely as possible. You can also download a JPG version to use on social media.

You can find the latest news about the March on our website and our Erie March for Life Facebook profile (please like and share).

Speakers

The Erie March for Life will conclude with a program of speakers on the stage in Perry Square. At this time, our confirmed speakers are: Clare Caulfield, 2025-26 President of Gannon University Students for Life; Slippery Rock Mayor JD Longo; Sheila Sterrett, Regional Director for U.S. Senator Dave McCormick; and Father Steve Schrieber, Pastor of St. Joseph, Sacred Heart, and St. Paul parishes, who will offer the Invocation. U.S. Representative Mike Kelly is also likely to be on the program. Stay tuned for more speaker announcements!

Incidentally, Mayor Longo was the opening speaker at the rally in Butler where President Trump was nearly assassinated. He and his wife Nicolina are the proud parents of a brand new baby girl, Valentina Rosa Longo, born February 7.

Survey of Local Primary Candidates

This past Tuesday, we mailed a questionnaire to 106 candidates running for selected Erie County offices in this year's primary election. The candidates are being asked to respond to nine newly-composed questions pertaining to abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.

Among the offices targeted are: City of Erie Mayor, Erie City Council, Erie County Executive, Erie County Council, supervisor races in the surrounding townships of Harborcreek, Millcreek, and Summit, and all school boards in Erie County.

Just two days later, on Thursday, we received our first response, which was hand-delivered and put through our front door mail slot. As you would expect, all answers are decidedly pro-life. An honorable mention goes to Kim Hunter, a candidate for Erie City Council, for a very prompt response.

Unfortunately, the percentage of candidates who respond to our surveys has been declining over the years. This is, perhaps, simply because of the Democrat Party's slide into pro-abortion extremism. However, there are also indications that the Republican Party is beginning to shy away from the right to life question: Is it okay to summarily kill inconvenient human beings or not?

School board candidates are the least likely to respond and most likely to respond with hostility.

Data from the survey will be published ahead of the May 20 Primary Election in the next issue of our Erie Echo newsletter.

Community Engagement

On March 15, we had a table at a pro-life conference organized by Gannon Students for Life. Karli Van Der Volgen, one of our board members welcomed visitors to our display.

The event was held in the Waldron Campus Center's Yehl Ballroom. None other than Walter Iwanenko, Jr., the President of Gannon University, kicked off the event with a wonderful, pro-life greeting and effusive praise for the University's Students for Life.

A week later, on March 22, we were at the annual WCTL Women's Conference, held this year at Erie First Assembly of God. People for Life VP Gretchen Lorei and our faithful volunteer Clare Caulfield staffed our table. They handed out nearly 200 fliers to promote the Erie March for Life and almost as many copies of our in-house-produced Abortion Pill brochure.

Our next event? The Erie Wild Rib Cook Off & Music Festival, May 28-31.

Planned Parenthood Funding Pause

The sacred cow of the child sacrifice movement, Planned Parenthood, is not exempt from President Trump's DOGE scrutiny. Some funding of the abortion giant's operations is being paused in, at least, a few states. The amount of money being held up, about $21 million, is a tiny drop in the Planned Parenthood bucket, which actually rakes in about three-quarters of a BILLION taxpayer dollars annually. But it is, at least, a chink in their armor. And it's enough to have the pro-abortion people screaming from the rooftops.

Funding cuts to Planned Parenthood would be disastrous(!) according to the "fiscal conservatives" at the far-left publication Politico. Dead babies, or no babies, are more economical than live babies, they say: "[T]he cost of funding Planned Parenthood would be passed on — and surpassed — by the increased cost of funding Medicaid."

FREE BUMPER STICKER AVAILABLE AT PEOPLE FOR LIFE: