“Is This What You Mean?”

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.


Priests for Life
PO Box 236695 • Cocoa, FL 32923
Tel. 321-500-1000, Toll Free 888-735-3448 • Email: mail@priestsforlife.org