Pro-Life Advocate to Step Up Legal Fight Against Abortion
Prominent pro-life advocate Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, said he plans to accelerate his pursuit of legal action against the abortion industry this year.
Pavone, who is a priest of the Catholic Diocese in Amarillo, Texas, said that he is confident his coalition’s actions will close many abortion mills and place many abortionists in jail.
"Building on the work done by many other groups with whom we collaborate, we will begin this month to accelerate the investigation of abortion clinics, which break laws left and right. We will bring special attention to the ten abortionists in Texas who have to answer to the Texas Medical Board for numerous violations, and will see to it that they are held accountable," Pavone said.
"As I have said since I began my work with Priests for Life in 1993, our job is to exploit the weaknesses of the abortion industry, which is collapsing under its own weight. The evil it does cannot withstand the light of human conscience."
In a statement from PFL, Pavone explained, “The approach is simple: a) uncover the ways abortionists break the law and get them punished for it; b) reveal the nature of the abortion procedure itself; c) show the harm abortion does to the very people the abortion industry claims to serve, and d) pray more intensely than ever for abortion to end."
PFL officials say they will provide information to churches in the United States and other pro-life groups about the details of “this four-pronged strategy” in the coming weeks. "We will also communicate to prison chaplains a simple message: get ready to see a lot more abortionists in the jail cells."
Pavone, who provides funding for the Day of Silent Solidarity through PFL and Gospel of Life, was accused late last year of questionable financial activity by Bishop Patrick J. Zurek, head of the Catholic Diocese of Amarillo.
Although it is unclear what his standing is currently with the diocese, Pavone wrote a letter to his benefactors in which he stated that the PFL’s existence is in serious doubt, according to a story by the National Catholic Reporter published last month.
In the fundraising letter sent in early December, he wrote that "all of our work at Priests for Life, indeed the very existence of Priests for Life, is in jeopardy."
Despite a reportedly precarious financial standing, Pavone writes that PFL is “pressing ahead with all of our work because tens of millions of lives are at stake.”
In an email response to The Christian Post about the methods he uses to “uncover abortionists,” Pavone wrote, “Through legal, moral, and ethical means we conduct undercover and surveillance work around abortion facilities to identify their illegal activities and encourage prosecutors to prosecute them to the full extent of the law.
“We also encourage and train pro-life people who pray at abortion clinics to be alert to the signs of illegal activity and to send us information about it and to contact local law enforcement. In addition to this, we work with former clinic workers and ex-abortionists, who often provide a lot of leads to this kind of information.”