Priests for Life carries out a special
project called “Is This What You Mean?” It aims to educate the public about the
nature of abortion and to challenge public officials and candidates who support
the legality of abortion to admit what it is.
It is a project that
pro-life people everywhere can participate in.
Below is a brief description of this project, along with initial resources
that you can use. Additional information will be posted here as the project
develops.
Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director
We in the pro-life community have been fed up for a long time with “public
servants” who can’t seem to tell the difference between serving the public and
killing the public. They mask the violence of abortion with the smooth language
of “choice,” and refuse to protect the victims.
These politicians make their homes in the Democrat Party which is officially for abortion without limits. Some of these politicians hold public
office and others seek it. And many Church leaders have been hesitant to
discipline such individuals, even though many of them claim to practice their
faith.
These abortion supporting politicians get away with what they are doing in
large measure because they refuse to talk about what the “choice” actually is.
They try to avoid the word “abortion” altogether; but even when they use it, the
word has lost practically all its meaning. Voters hear the word but are left
with little or no awareness of the gruesome horror it represents.
This election season, it’s time for that to change. No matter what
politicians or voters or Church officials are or are not going to do, it’s time
that we who know what abortion is draw a line in the sand and give candidates
and office-holders alike this challenge:
If you’re going to take a position on
abortion, then you’re going to have to come clean about what it is. We
are no longer going to let you obscure or trivialize the issue. Whether people
agree with you or not, you owe it to them to be honest about what you’re talking
about.
Therefore we issue this simple call to honesty:
We will describe abortion to you, and you tell us if that’s what you’re
talking about.
That’s it, pure and simple. This is not a debate,
nor a threat. It’s a call to clarity, a demand for honesty. That is not
partisan, nor is it unreasonable; it is not fanatical or inappropriate in any
way. Nor is this about religion or morality.
We just want to make sure that we’re hearing you.
When you say “abortion,” we just want to make sure we’re both talking about the
same thing.
I recently posted two videos on You Tube in which I describe and demonstrate
the two most common abortion techniques, using the actual instruments of
abortion and the words found in medical textbooks and court testimony. Below you
will see the links to these videos, as well as brief quotes you can use from
abortionists themselves.
For example, Dr. Carolyn Westhoff testified, “In the dismemberment D&E…it is
necessary to insert our forceps…and then crush the head.” (National Abortion
Federation v. Ashcroft, April 2004, US District Court, Southern District of
New York).
Then simply ask “pro-choice” politicians (whether they are candidates or
already in public office) if this is what they mean when they say “abortion.”
Yes or no. Ask it publicly. Ask it repeatedly. Ask it at town meetings, on
blogs, in editorials. Those whose support they are seeking deserve to know.
YouTube links for these videos of the abortion procedures:
Dismemberment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us_y9GP_-DA
Suction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBOAPleF1t0
Click here to order diagrams, with descriptions, of the two most common
abortion procedures.