Catholic, Pro-Life Groups Launch Voter Education Campaign on Abortion 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 23, 2004
Staten Island, NY (LifeNews.com) — A leading Catholic group and a coalition of pro-life religious organizations are launching a voter education campaign targeted toward churchgoers. The groups want to encourage both Catholic and Protestant voters to keep the abortion issue in mind when voting.
"We intend to conduct an all-out campaign in the final weeks before the election," said Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, which is coordinating the Catholic outreach.
"We intend to deliver a clear message to all citizens: Abortion is not simply one issue in this election; it is the most fundamental human rights issue of our time," Pavone explained.
The National Pro-life Religious Council, a coalition of pro-life groups that work to advance the pro-life message in denominations such as the Lutheran, Presbyterian and Methodist churches, will organize educational efforts for Protestants.
Both groups will educate pastors on how to legally speak about the importance of making abortion a top priority when voting. They will also reach church members through messages in church bulletins, distributing literature in church parking lots, and through paid media campaigns.
The groups plan to show churchgoers that, "any candidate who supports abortion has no right to hold any kind of public office, just as anyone who supports terrorism should not be allowed to hold public office," Pavone said.
Priests for Life’s $1 million election education campaign includes registering more than 100,000 people to vote, get out the vote phone calls, distributing hundreds of thousands of pieces of literature, a new election television series on EWTN, and the creation of three television commercials.
The organization’s training of Catholic officials includes faxed messages to all 19,000 Catholic parishes and urging priests to focus on the election and abortion in their sermons. Priests for Life is also organizing conference calls with thousands of volunteers to teach and train them about the importance of abortion and voting.
The Catholic group has also launched a special prayer campaign to encourage Christians to pray for the upcoming elections.
Related web sites:
Priests for Life – https://www.priestsforlife.org
National Pro-life Religious Council – https://www.nprcouncil.org
