Free Speech Trumps Pro-Abortion Censors

Staten Island, NY – Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, said today that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to let stand a lower court ruling allowing the issuance of “Choose Life” license plates in Arizona is a victory against censorship.

“Only a pro-abortion zealot would consider the words ‘Choose Life’ to be controversial,” stated Fr. Pavone.   “Abortion profiteers and their political supporters are obviously threatened by the thought that someone, somewhere, sometime might choose an alternative to abortion.  Now that the Arizona government’s pro-abortion censors have been rebuked by the courts for the last time, drivers can finally exercise their free speech rights and choose ‘Choose Life’ license plates.”

Priests for Life is the nation’s largest Catholic pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia. For more information, visit www.priestsforlife.org.

Friends, 

I’m flying back from Seattle today, and had a great Mass for Life with the members of Legatus yesterday, at which I addressed in my homily the critical importance of next month’s elections. It was good to see the fervor and determination of so many of them for making sure that pro-life candidates are elected. 

In one of the discussions I had with these business leaders, we talked about the relationship between the elections and mercy. Essentially, we are asking God for mercy on the nation when we pray for a good outcome of the elections. The US Bishops said in Living the Gospel of Life that we get the public officials we deserve. Yet we can pray, as we do in the First Eucharistic Prayer, “do not consider what we truly deserve, but grant us your forgiveness.” 

Today is the Feast of St. Faustina, to whom Jesus gave the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. He gave it to her specifically because the world needed to make reparation above all for the sin of abortion. She even felt the pains representing the women aborting their children. The pro-life movement has made the Chaplet, very appropriately, one of its key prayers. Let’s use it intensely in these final weeks before the election. 

Blessings!

Fr. Frank

At the 2008 Legatus International Fall Summit, which I have been attending here in Seattle, the Cardinal O’Connor Pro-life Awards were presented on Friday night, October 3. Peggy Hartshorn, President of Heartbeat International, presented the awards to the following recipients: Sr. Paula Vandegaer, Chris and Joan (Andrews) Bell, and the Sisters of Life.

Sr. Paula is the Executive Director of International Life Services. Based in Los Angeles, she coordinates pregnancy centers and trains volunteers who devote themselves full-time to pro-life work. Sr. Paula has been doing this work for decades and is highly respected in the movement. She has an advanced training institute at which Priests for Life Associate Director Janet Morana spoke this past summer.

Chris and Joan Bell live in New Jersey. Chris runs the Good Counsel Homes, which take in moms and babies, no matter what challenges they are facing socially, physically, or emotionally. Joan (Andrews) Bell is best known for her heroic witness in the Rescue movement. For peaceful intervention to save babies, she spent some 6 years in jail, with over two years in solitary confinement.

The Sisters of Life were founded in the early 1990’s by Cardinal John O’Connor, Archbishop of New York. They have both a contemplative and active dimension to their community, and their full-time ministry is pro-life work.

They take a special fourth vow for the defense of human life.

Priests for Life congratulates these recipients, all of whom are friends and colleagues of ours, and thanks Legatus for recognizing the importance of their work and witness.

Fr. Frank

Fr. Frank and Peggy Hartshorn (l.), both previous recipients of the Cardinal O’Connor Pro-life Award, join this year’s recipients, Chris and Joan (Andrews) Bell and Sr. Paula Vandegaer (r.) at the Legatus Summit in Seattle.

Friends, this is a story we placed this morning on our Priests for Life website. Please learn more about Legatus and think of people in the business world who may be interested in it.

From October 2 to 5th, Fr. Frank Pavone is joining Catholic CEOs from around the nation in Seattle for a Summit of Legatus, the organization which was founded by Tom Monahan and which assists Catholic business leaders to live out their faith in the marketplace. Legatus has always been strongly committed to defending the right to life, and as he has done since 1994, Fr. Frank will share with the members some of the latest updates in the pro-life movement and encourage them in their own involvement in this greatest human rights cause of our time.

This past weekend, a group of pastors around the country observed “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.” They spoke about the moral qualifications of candidates for public office, with a freedom that they maintain the IRS is wrongly taking from pastors.

This effort is not about bringing politics into the pulpit; it’s about getting government out of the pulpit. It should be Church authority, not government authority, that  determines the criteria for how pastors should address politics. 

When a preacher goes into a pulpit, he does so under the command and authority of God, to preach God’s word. Now God’s word cannot really be God’s if the government can limit or censor it. Moreover, if preachers didn’t historically have the freedom to challenge government authority, we would have neither Christianity nor the United States of America. 

My advice to my fellow priests and pastors is simply this: Don’t have a knee-jerk reaction to the actions some pastors took this weekend, simply dismissing such actions as inappropriate. Rather, think about whether you are fully exercising the freedom you already do have under the law, and think about how much you are not doing simply because you fear legal entanglements.

Fr. Frank

Friends, 

As the election season of 2008 continues to be filled with surprises, twists, and turns, it’s critical for us to keep focused on the simple task of mobilizing voters, registering those who aren’t yet registered, informing those who aren’t yet informed about the candidates, and continuing to point out that there is no issue more important than the right to life. Any public servant who can’t tell the difference between serving the public and killing the public does not belong in public office. 

One thing that has not been a surprise in this election is the reluctance of so many Church institutions to carry out the spiritual work of mercy of instructing their people about their voting options. Though the Church is free legally and morally to issue voter guides, specifying candidates’ positions on issues of concern to the voters, these are rarely to be found. Many officials in the Church consider it “more trouble than it’s worth” to follow the legal guidelines to produce the proper kind of guide and to handle the criticisms that will inevitably follow from some who think that the guide hurts their favorite candidates. Moreover, some officials put more effort into telling people not to use materials from “outside groups” than into producing materials of their own.

But the task of citizens is the same as ever and is as effective as ever. Inform your fellow citizens! Spread the information that they need to know. Utilize the means of communication provided by the internet and by the various associations and movements by which you interact with like-minded believers and pro-life activists. The fact is that the margin of victory in so many elections comes from a very small segment of the population. And surveys show that pro-life activists work harder for their candidates than pro-abortion activists do for theirs. So let’s have “all hands on deck” and get the job done.

Please join me for our conference call this Monday night September 29. Click here to register. One of the things we’ll discuss is what polls do and do not mean. 

Thanks

Fr. Frank

Friends, 

The other day I was in the office of Congressman Trent Franks, learning more about a bill he is introducing called the “Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act” (see the media advisory below). No abortions because the parents wanted a boy instead of a girl, or vice-versa, and no abortions because of the race of the child…Nor would coercion or payment for such procedures be permitted… 

This is one of those bills that will expose the extremism of those abortion supporters who cannot bear the slightest restriction on this violence, and will also educate the public about the outrageous lack of regulation under which the abortion industry operates. 

And it should raise another point of discussion as well, namely, that all abortion – and the very legality of it – is discrimination. To say that children in the womb are not persons is discrimination of the worst sort, with the worst consequences. 

Blessings,

Fr. Frank

MEDIA ADVISORY

Franks to Introduce Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act

Members of Congress Join Steve Mosher, Day Gardner, Dr. Alveda King, and Rev. Clenard Childress, to Call for an End to Race- and Sex-Selection Abortion

Tuesday, Sept 23 – 2:30 p.m. EDT – Cannon Terrace

Washington, D.C. — Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02), a Member of the House Judiciary Commitee and Ranking Member on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittee, will host a press conference on Tuesday to introduce the Prenatal Nondiscrimation Act (“PreNDA”). PreNDA would prohibit knowingly performing or financing race- or sex-selection abortion.

What: Press conference introducing the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act
Who:

·Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ), Ranking Member on the Constitution Subcommittee
·Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
·Steve Mosher — President, Population Research Institute
·Dr. Alveda King — Pastoral Associate of Priests For Life and Director of African American Outreach for the Gospel of Life Ministries
·Day Gardner — President, National Black Pro-Life Union
·Reverend Clenard Childress — Northeast Region President of the Life Education And Resource Network (L.E.A.R.N.)

When: Tuesday, September 23, 2008, 2:30p.m. EDT

Where: Cannon Terrace

Contact: Bethany Barker, 202-631-1778 (cell) or Bethany.barker@mail.house.gov

It is estimated that as many as 50% of African-American babies conceived in the U.S. each year are eliminated by government subsidized abortion providers. Following the unearthing of the nation-wide race-targeted abortion donations, civil rights activists and African-American pastors from across the country protested government acquiescence in race-targeted abortion and the government funding of clinics that they believe are purposefully placed in the inner city and targeted to minority women.

Based on the most recent census, sex-selection abortion is also taking place in the United States. A March 2008 report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that there is “strong son bias” and “clear evidence of sex selection, most likely at the prenatal stage.” A 2006 Zogby International poll shows that 87% of the American public desires a law to ban sex selection abortion.
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Congressman Franks is serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and is a member of the Committee on Armed Services, Strategic Forces Subcommittee, Readiness Subcommittee, Committee on the Judiciary, and is Ranking Member on the Constitution Subcommittee.

Friends, 

The other day Priests for Life had our national press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC. I’m preparing the video to post here, and  as you’ll see, we gave a very direct challenge to our public officials to admit, like the abortionists do, what abortion is. 

Various media outlets were there. Among them was “Conscience,” the publication of “Catholics for a Free Choice.” 

It will be interesting to see what they will publish. They’ve been interested in Priests for Life for quite a few years. After all, the more that priests are for life, the less Catholics will be for choice. So they watch us closely. Of course, they’re not a Catholic organization, as the bishops have pointed out more than once. 

Will “Conscience” have the integrity to publish the words of the abortionists, and challenge the “conscience” of its readers to answer the question our press conference asked: “When you say ‘abortion,’ is this what you mean?” 

Stay tuned. 

Fr. Frank

Washington, DC – On the heels of controversies involving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Joseph Biden’s comments on the Catholic Church and abortion, Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, today ended three days of visits to the offices of members of Congress, challenging them to admit what abortion is.

“The abortion debate often lacks a starting point, because the word has lost practically all its meaning,” Fr. Pavone stated. “We’ve been visiting Congressional offices, bringing diagrams of the procedure and quotes of abortionists, and then have asked, ‘Is this what you mean when you say abortion?’”

Joining Fr. Pavone in these Capitol Hill meetings were Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino, Fr. Denis G. Wilde, O.S.A., Fr. Peter J. West, Fr. Victor Salomon, and the Coordinator of Priests for Life’s Lay Missionaries, James J. Pinto. The details of the “Is This What You Mean?” campaign, along with the quotes and diagrams, can be found at www.priestsforlife.org/isthiswhatyoumean.

“The last thing that abortion supporters want to talk about is abortion,” Fr. Pavone added. “But this campaign puts the words of the abortionists before the public, so that those who vote in favor of abortion can no longer hide from its violent reality.”

Click here for a related press release

Click here for the statement given by former abortionist, Dr. Anthony Levatino

Click here for the statement given by Fr. Frank Pavone

Click here for the statement in Spanish given by Fr. Victor Salomon

 A few of my colleagues in the pro-life movement have at times made the blanket generalization that showing pictures of aborted babies “doesn’t work” or is “counterproductive.” They say people already know abortion is evil, and seeing the photos will only turn them away from our movement. Nor, they say, will the photos persuade someone not to have an abortion.May I present some evidence to the contrary. These are three of hundreds of emails I receive from people who see these photos at www.priestsforlife.org/images.

1. “Up until I visited this site I had been prochoice. I thought that I would do an Internet search to see exactly what an abortion entails. After seeing the images on your site, there was no decision to be made. I figured that whatever hardships having a baby at this time would bring me would be far easier than living with the guilt I knew I would never rid myself of if I was to get an abortion. The pictures had such a powerful effect on me. They helped me to be strong and realize that this pregnancy was made possible by God and if it wasn’t meant to be, that was His choice, not mine.”

2. “Hello, I am a sixteen-year-old female and I just finished looking at the pictures on your site and reading what actually happens during an abortion. Up until five minutes ago I was extremely pro-choice. Because of your site, I realize that abortion is not a choice about a woman’s body…it is the LIFE of a BABY. Never before did I realize how truly horrible and careless abortion really is. Maybe it’s because I’d never seen the pictures, or read the actual descriptions of abortion. Maybe I was too afraid to know the truth. But within 3 minutes of viewing your website, my face was covered in tears. Those pictures just really hurt to look at. I cannot express how grateful I am that you have shown me the truth about abortion. God bless you.”

3. “Thank you so much for your website. I am 14 weeks pregnant and my partner wants me to have an abortion. … so I thought about it. I got on the internet trying to see how much it cost and I was lead to your site. I wanted to see what happens and what they look like at 14 weeks. Thanks to your site. I am not going to do it. I am unable to commit murder. That is like killing my own children at their age. This is a remarkable website. Everyone should see this site before they consider having an abortion. Everyone needs to see this to determine if they are able to live with themselves after doing this”.

Many other messages like these are posted at www.priestsforlife.org/images.

Now if someone prefers not to use the photos, that’s fine. Many others will, and there are many other kinds of pro-life work to go around. But please don’t say the photos don’t work. They certainly do.