Joseph Scheidler, a major architect of the antiabortion movement, dies at 93 Matt Schudel Joseph M. Scheidler, a onetime seminarian who became a key architect of the antiabortion movement, developing confrontational tactics aimed at blocking women from obtaining abortions and shutting down clinics that provided the procedure, died Jan. 18 at his home in Chicago. He was 93. The cause was pneumonia, said a son, Eric Scheidler. Mr. Scheidler, a fiery and influential figure in the country’s long battle over abortion rights, used every tool from persuasion to intimidation to a bullhorn to advance his cause, which he said was in obedience to a “higher law that says: Thou shalt not kill.”