Open Letter Challenges Pro-Abortion Candidates to Explain What They Support
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 27, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new open letter from a top pro-life Catholic leader is challenging pro-abortion political candidates to make it clear what they support when they say they are "pro-choice" on abortion. Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life relies on descriptions from abortion practitioners to show how abortion is repugnant.
The letter is part of Pavone’s campaign this election season to call pro-abortion politicians on the carpet and make them speak candidly about the brutality of abortion.
He cites quotes from abortion practitioners themselves — such as partial-birth abortion inventor Martin Haskell saying a baby’s "skull is brought out in fragments rather than as a unified piece" during an abortion.
"When you say the word ‘abortion,’ is this what you mean? When you say it should be legal, are you willing to quote those who explain what it is?" Pavone asked in the letter.
In the letter he provided to LifeNews.com, Pavone also quotes from Mother Teresa in her speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994. The respected public servant asked: “And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”
"We have not yet heard a ‘pro-choice’ candidate answer any of these questions," Pavone said.
The open letter issues a challenge not only to pro-abortion candidates like Barack Obama but voters who support them by saying their position on other issues makes up for their support of abortion.
"If you can’t respect and protect the life of a little baby, how are you supposed to respect and protect our lives, or any other right we possess?" Pavone tells the candidates.
"When you ask someone for your vote, you are actually asking them to share in your failure to protect these children. You’re asking them to share in the deception by which you justify that failure. You’re asking them, too, to contradict the meaning of public service," he explains.
Pavone also says the pro-life movement should have no apologies for voting based solely on the issue of abortion.
"We are not ashamed of the fact that we recognize a holocaust when we see one, and that we understand the foundation, heart, and core of our concern for all the other issues – life itself," he says. "We’re not a vote for you to court or an interest group for you to appease. Rather, our movement represents the heart and core of every movement for justice."
Ultimately, Pavone says candidates and voters need to see how pro-abortion candidates have a position that is a "blatant contradiction to the very meaning of public service — the first requirement of which is to be able to tell the difference between serving the public and killing the public."
Related web sites:
Priests for Life – https://www.PriestsforLife.org
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