Mike Schwartz (activist)

Michael Schwartz (1950 – February 3, 2013) was an American leader in the United States anti-abortion movement, a co-founder of the March for Life, and a founding chairman of a Planned Parenthood watchdog organization named Life Decisions International.[1] In 1995, he was named executive director of the House's Family Congressional Caucus. He also worked as the vice president of Concerned Women for America.[2] He was a member of Operation Rescue[3] and Chief of Staff to then-Representative Tom Coburn until 2000; Schwartz served in the same role from 2004 to 2012, still under Coburn, who had become a Senator.

Biography

Schwartz was raised in Philadelphia in a family that, in his own words, suffered from “social pathologies — drug abuse, welfare dependency, illegitimacy."[4]

In 1969, at the University of Dallas, he co-founded Sons of Thunder, "one of the first pro-life groups in America".[5] The group invaded an abortion clinic, and its members were arrested.[6]

In 2011, Schwartz was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. He died on February 3, 2013, surrounded by his wife, children, and grandchildren.

References

  1. ^ "Life Decisions International". Life Decisions International. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
  2. ^ "Michael Schwartz". The Washington Post. July 26, 2012. Archived from the original on February 25, 2015. Retrieved 2013-02-06.
  3. ^ "Operation Rescue". Operation Rescue. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
  4. ^ "Michael Schwartz, a conservative activist and congressional chief of staff, dies at 63". The Washington Post. 2013-02-21. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-11-29.
  5. ^ "The Catholic Thing". thecatholicthing.org. 2013-02-08. Retrieved 2013-02-08.
  6. ^ Ruse, Austin (July 1, 2016). "The Court Has Completely Destroyed Its Own Legitimacy". Crisis. Retrieved December 4, 2025.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.