News

By Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 24, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Fr. Frank Pavone led a team of pro-life advocates to Capitol Hill last week for a three-day educational demonstration directed at pro-choice members of Congress, which set out to reveal the gruesome reality of abortion.

The campaign did not seek to address abortion as a moral issue, but simply explained via medical diagrams and abortionist quotations the true nature of the abortion procedure, which is often ignored by abortion advocates.  At a press conference Fr. Pavone said, “In these weeks before our national elections, we are asking all of those who believe abortion should be legal to answer a simple question. We present you with the words of the abortionists themselves and then ask, ‘When you say abortion, is this what you mean?’

“We urge our fellow citizens to face the reality of what abortion is: an act of violence that kills a child.”

On the Priests for Life website, Fr. Pavone explained that the campaign, to some extent, is bound to succeed:

“When the abortion supporter is presented with the abortionist’s quotes and asked, ‘Is this what you mean?’ the goal of the project has already been accomplished, namely, that the abortion supporter – and others who are listening – have heard a description of abortion that they have never heard before. They have heard graphic detail that cuts through the rhetoric and restores meaning to the word ‘abortion.’”

Fr. Pavone was joined in his march through Capitol Hill offices by other pro-life activists, including Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino, who walked his congressional audience step-by-step through the horrifying procedure of a typical abortion.  The following is an excerpt from Dr. Levatino’s description of the dilation and evacuation abortion procedure from the Priests for Life website, where he asks his audience to envision themselves in the place of an abortionist.

“Once you have grasped something inside [the uterus], squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard – really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about 4 to 5 inches long. … Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart and lungs.

“The head of a baby that age is about the size of a plum and is now free floating inside the uterine cavity. … You will know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see a pure white gelatinous material issue from the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. You can then extract the skull pieces.

“If you have a really bad day like I often did, a little face may come out and stare back at you.”

Dr. Levatino, while still practicing as an obstetrician-gynecologist, told CNSNews.com that he ended his career as an abortionist after personal tragedy struck.

“My wife and I had an infertility problem,” Levatino said. “We were unable to have children, and after several years of effort, we were very, very fortunate in being able to adopt a little girl whom we named Heather. As sometimes happens, after years of effort—and I mean three surgeries on my wife’s part and everything else—we finally adopted a child, and my wife got pregnant the very next month. We ended up with two children just 10 months apart. We were very blessed that way.
 
“On June 23, 1984, my son was trying to cross the street, and my daughter, who was always the little mother, was running after him to tell him not to do that, and she was struck and killed by a car.
 
“If you haven’t gone through that kind of tragedy, you don’t have a clue. You may think you can imagine it, but trust me: You have no idea what it’s like to lose a child, in any way.
 
“What do you do after a tragedy? You mourn for a while and you try to get back into your routine. I don’t know how long after her death I had to do my first D&E abortion. I remember reaching in and literally ripping out an arm or a leg and looking at it in the clamp and I got sick. When you start an abortion you can’t stop. If you leave anything behind, you [can] bet your patient is going to come back infected, bleeding or worse.
 
“I soldiered on and I finished that abortion.”
 
  But, Levatino said, something had changed.
 
“For the first time in my life I really looked at that pile of goo at the side of the table, and all of a sudden I didn’t see her wonderful right to choose, and I didn’t see the $600 wad of cash that I made in 15 minutes, and I couldn’t think about what a great doctor I was because I took care of her problem. All I could see was somebody’s son or daughter.”

Dr. Levatino is now a medical advisor for Priests for Life.

For further information on the Priest for Life initiative, visit https://www.priestsforlife.org.