Expand<\/a><\/p>\nHer tenure with the organization began in 1975 when she held the role of public relations director. She was elected as vice president soon after, and in 1982, the president position fell into her lap when the organization\u2019s third president, Denise Neary, resigned.<\/p>\n
During her tenure with Pennsylvanians for Human Life, Gohsler helped orchestrate protests against at least three presidential candidates, including Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale and his running mate, Geraldine Ferraro.<\/p>\n
Maria Gallagher, executive director of the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, recalled Gohsler\u2019s strength and conviction.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelen Gohsler was a true champion of the most vulnerable among us,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cShe empowered women with her farsighted ideals and the Pennsylvania pro-life movement is much better off as a result of her leadership. She was quite a spitfire and a great influence on me in terms of her writing. She was a great communicator and she will be greatly missed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gohsler received the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Achievement Award in 2009, a decade before retiring \u2014 an honor Gallagher stressed was more than deserved.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe really could have won that award more than once because she had more than one lifetime of service to the pro-life movement,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n
Gallagher remembers being inspired by Gohsler\u2019s leadership when the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation held a convention in Scranton<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at (her) and thought to myself, \u2018I want to be Helen when I grow up,\u2019\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cShe was that kind of person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gohsler also possessed a knack for connecting with women and providing sound advice to make a positive difference in the lives, Gallagher noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she was ahead of her time in a lot of respects,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cShe understood that in order to achieve the cause of life, you really had to reach out to pregnant women and empower them so they could make life-affirming decisions for themselves and their families. She was a trailblazer as far as that was concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallagher believes Gohsler provided a shining template for other pro-life advocates to follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelen left a tremendous legacy for Scranton, and for Pennsylvanians for Human Life,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re following in her footsteps, and there are new generations of leaders dedicated to preserving life and working toward the day when all human life is cherished and protected in Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The passing of a staunch pro-life advocate \u2014 who dedicated her life to the cause \u2014 leaves a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-189468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Helen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-GOHSLER-07.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Helen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-GOHSLER-05.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Helen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-GOHSLER-04.jpg?w=620\")
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