NEW YORK -- Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, issued the following statement this morning, on the day of the first Presidential debate:
"As debates about issues, policies, and polls dominate the airwaves today, we at Priests for Life want to raise the call for repentance.
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In particular, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party need to repent of their unmitigated support of abortion, which kills over a million babies in America every year.
“This is not merely a debate about policy, but about principle: May a government ever authorize the killing of a baby?
“Moreover, this is not merely a debate about what government should or shouldn't do, but about what kind of government we have. What kind of authority do we give a candidate when we elect him or her? Do they have veto power over human rights? Can they authorize the killing of even a single baby?
“Pope Saint John Paul II wrote that a government that legalizes abortion becomes a tyrant state and the disintegration of the state itself has begun. (Evangelium Vitae, n. 20.)
“In the Supreme Court's Stenberg vs. Carhart decision of 2000, Justice Anthony Kennedy, in his dissent, wrote, "The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn from limb from limb."
“The last thing abortion-supporting candidates, like Hillary Clinton, or abortion-supporting parties, like the Democratic Party, want to discuss is abortion. They do not want to show it or even describe it, because they know that if they do so, people will reject it.
“And yet the Democratic Party does not.
“Yes, it is time for debates, polls, and elections. But more fundamentally, it is time for repentance.
“No government can authorize the killing of a baby, and we deserve to know whether those who ask for our vote acknowledge that. After all, if they cannot respect the life of a little baby, how can they respect ours?"
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.