Pro-Choice, Pro-life Leaders to Release Historic Joint Statement

For Immediate Release

January 9, 2003

Contact Jerry Horn, Media Director for Priests for Life, at 540-785-4733, and Bill Baird at 631-673-6871

Can you imagine two of the nation's leading fighters on the volatile issues of abortion and birth control, with totally opposing views, joining each other in the same room to agree on anything? Though it is like mixing oil and water, it will happen this Monday, January 13, at 11am, at the Gibson Suite of the Hilton New York (1335 Avenue of the Americas) in New York City. 

Abortion pioneer Bill Baird, holder of three US Supreme Court victories, and often referred by the media as "the father of the abortion movement" will appear with the dynamic, national leader of Priests for Life, Rev. Frank Pavone.  

They will hold a joint news conference regarding the increasing tensions between those on opposite sides of reproductive issues, and will release an historic joint peace statement about how to diminish the hostility. 

Bill Baird has crusaded for reproductive freedom for 40 years, and has been jailed 8 times for advocating reproductive rights. He established the nation's first birth control/abortion center in Hempstead, L.I. in 1964; his clinic was firebombed and he has been shot at. He is the only non-lawyer in American history with three US Supreme Court victories (Baird v. Eisenstadt, 1972; Baird v. Bellotti 1, 1976, and II, 1979). He appears frequently on national media. Newsday (12/19/99) listed Bill Baird, along with Theodore Roosevelt and others, as one of the 100 most influential people of the century. He is the director of the non-profit Pro Choice League, Inc.

Rev. Frank Pavone has been a pro-life activist since 1976 and is internationally known as the leader of the Priests for Life organization (priestsforlife.org), and is the new president of the interdenominational National Pro-life Religious Council. He has fought abortion in all 50 states and on 5 continents, and worked for a time at the Vatican. He produces regular pro-life television and radio programs on EWTN, the world's largest religious cable network, and other outlets, and is the recipient of many of the highest awards given in the pro-life movement. In 1999, the Daily Catholic named Fr. Pavone among the top 100 Catholics of the century.