Craig T. Owens

It is time to end the evil of abortion once and for all, and Father Frank Pavone lays out a helpful game plan in his book Abolishing Abortion. Check out my review of his book here, and then read some of the quotes I found noteworthy.

“As I have often said, the last thing supporters of abortion want to discuss is abortion. You will not hear them described the procedure or any of its gory details. Often they avoid the very word, instead couching it in softer, more acceptable terms like ‘a woman’s right to choose’ or ‘reproductive rights.’ We are living in a world proud to turn a blind eye to the obvious. That great blind spot in our culture covers the children in the womb. Our mission is to shine light on that darkness.” 

“The point here is not to turn the church into a political mechanism. The point is to increase the freedom of the church to speak about relevant national issues. We are not talking about preaching politics, but about preaching the Word of God as a way of illuminating politics.”

“God did not rescue us from sin and death to build a community of nervous chipmunks ever sniffing the air for potential danger. He sealed our lives with His own death-defining Spirit so that we might act in kind.” —Rev. John Ensor, Innocent Blood

“Federal law and some state laws recognize unborn children as victims if they are killed in the commission of a crime. This leads to the curious contradiction that if a pregnant woman on her way to an abortion is struck by a drunk driver, that driver can be charged with the death of the child she was about to have legally killed.”

“So when the public is horrified at Kermit Gosnell snipped the spinal cords of babies born alive, or when they are horrified that he performed abortions in the final months of pregnancy, they are not horrified by some anomaly, but by an abortion mind-set that simply exalts choice above life.”

“The incremental nature of our activities—the fact that at the present time we might pass a ban on abortions after twenty weeks but not before—is justified only as long as that limitation is not chosen by us but imposed on us by circumstances beyond our control. In other words, if I worked to pass a law to protect children at twenty weeks and later, the failure to protect them earlier must be totally beyond the scope of what I can decide. As a goal, I can never decide, choose, will, or agree to make even a single abortion acceptable or legal. But if the legislative support for protecting babies before twenty weeks does not yet exist in a particular legislative body—if, in other words, the votes just aren’t there—then I can support that ban precisely because I’m doing everything I can at the moment.”

“Our Lord simply did not follow the doctrine that successful ministry requires being liked. In fact, He promised that fidelity to Him (that is, ‘success’ in being His disciples) would guarantee persecution. It is wrong, of course, to use such a guarantee as an excuse for imprudence, insensitivity, or lack of preparation. But at the same time, it would be foolish to ignore this promise of the Lord. Our success will depend not on whether we are liked, but rather on whether we are respected. Respect flows not from doing what the other finds pleasing but from what all recognized to be consistent, courageous, and immune from the temptation to change with the wind.”

“Given such a grave situation, we need now more than ever to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and to call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception.” —Pope John Paul II, The Gospel Of Life

“We need to convince the unconvinced that to be pro-life is to be pro-woman. The difference between ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’ is not that pro-lifers love the baby and pro-choicers love the woman. The difference is that the pro-choice message says you can separate the two, and the pro-life message says you cannot.”

If you would like to read the first batch of quotes I shared from this book, please click here.