Juli Loesch

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Julianne ("Juli") Loesch (married name: "Julianne Wiley" or "Juli Loesch Wiley") is a pro-life activist and former media coordinator for Operation Rescue in Atlanta, Georgia.

Born in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1951, she attended (see [[1]]) Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where, as an anti-war advocate, she was pursuing an education in non-violent social change. Within 3 months she was in Delano, California working for Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers (UFW). She later worked in organizing grape and lettuce boycotts in Detroit and Cleveland in support of agricultural labor strikes in California.

In 1972 Loesch became one of the founding members of the Pax (Peace) Center in Erie, Pennsylvania, joining Sr. Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB, in forming a Catholic feminist peace community. This group, comprising (see [[2]]) Benedictine Sisters and lay associates, was organized more or less on the Catholic Worker model, combining activism with the Works of Mercy (soup kitchen, homless shelter work. etc.) The Pax Center, together with other Catholic antiwar activist groups, soon morphed into [3] Pax Christi USA, the American affiliate of Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace movement.

An activist associated with the "Mobilization for Survival," an anti-nuke coalition of the late 1970's, Loesch became aware of the generation-spanning moral dilemma inherent in nuclear power and the nuclear weapons industry.

First, the industries themselves produce long-lasting fission products whose whole destructive effects would be cumulative over long timespans, victimizing unborn children and future generations whose human rights were never considered in the calculus of costs and benefits.

Second, nuclear weapons, if they were ever used, would certainly violate moral norms against indiscriminate destruction and/or the targeting of innocent human beings.

Loesch became convinced that abortion and the nuclear arms race are, in many ways, moral equivalents; and that the Peace and Prolife movements ought to be allies, not mutually uncomprehending factions isolated from each other on the Left and the Right extremes of the political spectrum.

This led to the founding of a "bridge" organization known as (see[[4]]) Prolifers for Survival (1979 - 1987) to wage protracted courtship with the peace and pro-life movements.

Convinced that the principles of "nonviolent social change" could find practical application to the controversial and divisive problem of abortion in America, Loesch has written extensively on these and related subjects. The larger Consistent Life Ethic movement grew partly out of her writing and activism.

Her articles or essays (many searchable via "Juli Loesch" or "Juli Loesch Wiley") have appeared in, among other publications:

• [5] New Oxford Review
• [6] National Catholic Reporter
• [7] National Catholic Register
• [8] Consistent Life
• [9] Commonweal
• [10] Sojourners
• [11] Caelum et Terra
• [12] Touchstone

Juli Loesch currently (as of 2006) lives in Tennessee with her husband, Donald Wiley, and their two sons, Ben and Vanya.