Anti-abortion advocate Dr. John Willke dies at 89 in Ohio

CINCINNATI (AP) — Dr. John Willke, an obstetrician who helped shape the modern anti-abortion movement with ideas including a belief that a woman can resist conception from a sexual assault, has died. He was 89.

Willke, who founded the International Right to Life Federation, died Friday at his home in Cincinnati, his daughter, Marie Meyers, said Saturday. She said the cause of death wasn't immediately known, but that he had seemed in good health for his age.

"The core of his life was caring for people as a husband, a father and a doctor, and that caring extended to his life work for unborn children and their mothers," Meyers said.

Willke quit delivering babies in the late 1960s to oppose abortion, retiring from his medical practice in 1988 to fully devote his time to the anti-abortion movement. He participated in protests and congressional hearings and appeared on national television frequently.

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