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Abortion Must Remain Central in Pro-Life Battle, Says Priests For Life Fr. Pavone

Stresses importance of keeping partial-birth abortion battle up front

By Gudrun Schultz

TALLAHASSEE, Florida, October 12, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The pro-life movement needs to concentrate on fighting abortion, Priests For Life director Fr. Frank Pavone said earlier this week, despite growing concerns over the de-valuing of human life in embryonic stem-cell research.

Three California-based biotech institutes recently expanded into Florida, leading the state’s pro-life movement to focus nearly as much energy into opposing embryonic stem cell research as abortion, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported yesterday.

Writing for the Priests For Life newsletter, Fr. Pavone pointed out that the switch in emphasis could in fact work in favour of abortion activists by distracting the public from the more easily understood horrors of partial-birth abortion.

“Let’s be perfectly clear: The destruction of the tiniest zygote is just as wrong as putting scissors in the neck of a partially-born baby. But it is not just as obvious. If we want to rouse the public to action and change public policy, we must keep the primary focus where we have the psychological and pedagogical advantage--partial-birth abortion--and move from there.”

The debate over partial-birth abortion, more than any other pro-life issue, shifted public opinion away from support for abortion, Fr. Pavone said.

“Abortion supporters would have been well-advised to just let us ban partial-birth abortion and forget about it. The more they fought to keep it legal, the more people rejected the “pro-choice” mindset.

“Now that it’s too late to hide partial-birth abortion, pro-abortion groups want to do the next best thing: shift the focus of the argument from later abortions to earlier ones, and from partially-delivered babies to embryonic stem cells.”

Fr. Pavone is one of the forefront pro-life advocates in the U.S. Along with his work in opposing abortion, he has been an outspoken opponent to euthanasia and assisted suicide. Fr. Pavone was closely involved in supporting the Schindler family in their fight to prevent the court-ordered dehydration and starvation death of their brain-damaged daughter Terri, an effort that failed when Terri’s feeding tube was finally withdrawn and she died March 31, 2005.

Despite his participation in opposing the country’s most notorious involuntary euthanasia case, Fr. Pavone said abortion takes more lives than other issues and must be first in the battle, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

“We care about all those issues, but we focus on abortion because life is the first right and it is being denied,” Fr. Pavone said.

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

Fr. Frank Pavone Visits Terri Schindler-Schiavo
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/oct/04100702.html

New Society of Priests Devoted to Pro-Life Cause Announced by Fr. Frank Pavone and Bishop Yanta
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/mar/05032303.html

Grisly Testimony Continues in Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Trials
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/apr/04040807.html

Supreme Court to Expand Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Review
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06061910.html

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