The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of the New Dorp-based Priests for Life, believes the pro-life movement will grow stronger with the election of pro-choice Barack Obama.
The Rev. Frank Pavone believes "Americans have made a grave mistake in electing Barack Obama to the presidency." Father Pavone, national director of the New Dorp-based Priests for Life, believes the pro-life movement will grow stronger as a result of Obama's election.
"He said during the campaign that he does not know when a human being starts to have human rights," Father Pavone said in a press release distributed by Christian Newswire. "How can one govern from that starting point of ignorance?"
Obama has said on several occasions that it's his goal to reduce the number of abortions performed in the U.S. During a "Democratic Compassion Forum" with Democratic primary opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton in April, Obama said the pro-life and pro-choice camps should try to find common ground so they can work together to bring down the number of abortions.
"And if we can acknowledge that much, then we can certainly agree on the fact that we should be doing everything we can to avoid unwanted pregnancies that might even lead somebody to consider having an abortion," Obama said. He also said teens should be taught about abstinence and contraception.
Father Pavone believes Obama's election will open "a new chapter of the pro-life movement," and is confident that one day, Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized abortion, will be overturned.
Others in the pro-life movement are not so sure. The Rev. Dave Watson, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Mariners Harbor and a board member of the Crisis Pregnancy Center in New Dorp, worries that the new president will resume federal funding for abortions, which was outlawed in 1976 under the Hyde Amendment.