It was a pleasure speaking with Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life and Missionaries of the Gospel of Life, President of the National Pro-life Religious Council, and Pastoral Director for Rachel’s Vineyard and Silent No More. Fr. Pavone carries many mantles, but all under the focus of educating and equipping clergy and the pro-life movement on the value of Life and how to be a faithful, knowledgeable and cogent advocate for Life.
I have been pro-life longer than I have been conservative, and Catholics have always been the ones who lead the charge for the pro-life movement. In my 50-plus years of life, I have attended and visited many Evangelical and Protestant churches, and the inconsistency on how Life and abortion are addressed is tragically disappointing — especially within the Black church, where literal genocide is occurring. With no respect due to BLM, more Black babies have been killed by abortion than by cops. Suffice to say, Catholics HOLD THE LINE on Pro-Life. Sorry, not sorry, but in my observation, the rest of the church of Jesus Christ still needs lessons, primarily on unity.
Which brings me to the April 8 video former President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social, basically affirming that the overturn of Roe was a good thing and that he is proud to have been an instrument of change. Trump further affirmed that now that the constitutional blanket of so-called abortion protections was no longer available, it was up to the individual states and the will of the people to continue the fight for Life.
As my colleague Neil McCabe wrote:
Two years into the post-Dobbs era, the pro-life movement is still trying to figure out its next steps. Pro-abortion activists are motivated, and they are aggressively pushing referenda and candidates.
The action is now in the states after 50 years in Washington, generally, at the Supreme Court, specifically.
Some people in the pro-life movement sound like Cold War veterans complaining that the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union fell, but the fact remains that Roe and Casey are gone — and Trump made it happen.
For all the recent triumphalism of the pro-abortion movement, none of them like what Trump did to them — and for the unborn.
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What McCabe said is true. There has been much condemnation, complaining, and division among many of the recognized leaders of pro-life organizations. These same organizations who sang President Trump’s praises up until now, suddenly were calling him everything but a child of God.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List, made a statement on the speech expressing her extreme disappointment and the expressed need for a nationwide prohibition on abortion. Dannenfelser said, in part:
“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position. Unborn children and their mothers deserve national protections and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry. The Dobbs decision clearly allows both states and Congress to act.
“Saying the issue is ‘back to the states’ cedes the national debate to the Democrats who are working relentlessly to enact legislation mandating abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. If successful, they will wipe out states’ rights.
“With lives on the line, SBA Pro-Life America and the pro-life grassroots will work tirelessly to defeat President Biden and extreme congressional Democrats.”
Dr. Abby Johnson, who did a video for the Republican National Convention in 2020 lauding Trump and the Republican Party’s focus on Life, came off particularly salty.
No, I will not be praising a pro-choice statement made by someone who says they are “prolife.” No, I’m not going to say that a person who has said they are sooooo prolife for years still needs to be “educated” on this issue. No “prolife leader” is celebrating any statement made…
— Dr. Abby Johnson (@AbbyJohnson) April 9, 2024
No, I will not be praising a pro-choice statement made by someone who says they are “prolife.” No, I’m not going to say that a person who has said they are sooooo prolife for years still needs to be “educated” on this issue. No “prolife leader” is celebrating any statement made today. Don’t listen to anyone who says that we are. The only people “celebrating” a prochoice statement are people who don’t believe in protecting innocent children from abortion at the moment of conception. We have got to stop listening to “leaders” who are willing to sell their soul for an election and/or “leaders” who still need education on the most important issue in our lifetime. If you don’t understand the significant damage abortion does to our society, then step aside.
Quite the shift four years later.
And the normally soft-spoken Lila Rose was razor-sharp in her criticism.
My Statement:
Killing babies is always wrong. President Trump is not a pro-life candidate. He’s far less pro-abortion than Biden, but he supports killing some preborn children and will even make that his position in an attempt to get pro-abortion votes.
Mario Cuomo was… https://t.co/UO6anF0iwi
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) April 8, 2024
Hers is the most lengthy statement by far, and stresses that she is not on board with Trump’s assessment of the cause or his solutions. That Trump’s stance of being pro-life personally but not politically is garbage. Rose concluded her statement by all but promising that Trump would not receive the support of the pro-life movement if he continues in this vein.
The pro-life movement across our nation is strong and growing. I implore President Trump to reject this swamp-consultant-driven position to abandon families and children at risk from abortion. In 2016, President Trump won on the back of vigorous pro-life support, and that support was vindicated with the appointment of the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. But that support will not materialize in 2024 if President Trump holds to this anti-human and cowardly position. Over 2,500 children are killed in our nation every day. They deserve legal protection, and our moment demands a champion who is not afraid to fight for them.
Fr. Pavone’s viewpoint embodies the political reality Trump outlined, but Pavone is much more direct and eloquent while weaving in the nuances embodied in the continued fight for Life. Pavone posted a video explainer on his X and Instagram accounts on why he supported what Trump said in his speech.
My Response and Reaction to President Trump’s statement of Abortion today. #prolife pic.twitter.com/FatWOW2BZF
— Frank Pavone (@frfrankpavone) April 8, 2024
We broke this down even further. Pavone does not see a problem with the disparate opinions and viewpoints within the pro-life movement, and he is confident that they will band together to not only support a pro-life president, but to continue their advocacy for Life.
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I have stated in prior articles that Republicans and even some of these organizational spokespeople are terrible at messaging. I asked Fr. Pavone how Priests for Life and other conscious pro-life organizations could not only encourage and promote each state’s culture of Life and Life occurrences, but teach their elected representatives to do the same. The “exceptions” in most abortion laws have also become a battleground. Pavone’s explanation on why pro-life leaders still use this language is quite thought-provoking.
Now add promotion of how Life Wins in every state by Republican elected officials of that state. Learn what’s happening in your own backyard and support it. Half of these reps have no clue. https://t.co/yE7zncBoiP
— Jennifer Oliver O’Connell (@asthegirlturns) April 9, 2024
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But no amount of legislation is going to convert hearts and minds. That is up to us. We must not just promote a culture of Life, but emulate it at every turn, and Fr. Pavone reaffirmed that this is where the church is critical. Pavone was a friend and partner with Dr. Bernard Nathanson after Nathanson’s conversion from the dark side. Nathanson created abortion-on-demand and was instrumental in getting Roe instituted. He had a conversion years later and spent the last 35 years of his life fighting to undo the harm he had caused, advocating for Life at all stages. In 2021, on the 10th anniversary of Dr. Nathanson’s death, Pavone wrote:
At the end of his life, in February of 2011, I visited him in his New York City apartment. He couldn’t get out of his bed and his voice was at a whisper. But the first thing he said to me as I approached his bed was, “Fr. Frank, how goes the crusade?”
His mind was not on his sufferings. It was on us, who labor, as he did, to undo some of the damage he caused by unleashing the abortion monster on America.
We discussed, in that final meeting on earth, as we had done many times before, that his story needs to be told, again and again. He especially urged me to repeat what he had explained publicly about how he “stole the abortion issue from the Church,” “caught the clergy asleep,” and that he and his friends “would never have gotten away with what we did if the clergy had been united, purposeful, and strong.” That is why he encouraged me so strongly to keep growing the ministry of Priests for Life.
So, how does the church, and all human beings who believe in Life, present a united, purposeful, and strong front? Pavone spoke beautifully to that as well.
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