by Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director
Priests for Life

Respect Life Month has been observed every October since 1972. This year, we are in a unique moment. Roe has fallen and more than a dozen states have enacted laws that protect most babies from abortion.

And pro-lifers are under attack - by the federal government, by the media, even by our neighbors.

It is the eternal struggle between light and darkness, and we know the resolve we must have to fight against the darkness.

We see the attacks – physical, verbal, and legal – against pregnancy centers. The fact that the other side has focused its rage on the centers shows that these centers are indeed on the front lines of the battle. What matters most to the enemy is that the blood of the children in the womb is shed, and that the money from those abortions continues to flow.

Every time a pregnancy center saves a life, the goals of the enemy are thwarted, even if the laws are completely on their side.

Hence their rage.

We fight against this darkness not only by serving these Moms and Dads, but by letting their voices be heard. Share the stories of the saves far and wide. I recently attended a pregnancy center banquet here in Orlando and brought with me a Mom who had been served by the center 28 years ago. I had been praying outside the abortion mill; she was in the waiting room, and she came out and changed her mind. I baptized the baby six months later and she kept in touch ever since.

There, at the banquet, she was accompanied by her daughter who was saved that day, and by her daughter’s two daughters! (You can see a video of them starting here.)

This is how we fight back. We show the beauty of the light conquering the darkness.

That is also why the testimonies of those who have had abortions are so crucial to our movement. It was exactly 20 years ago that, at a Heartbeat International Conference, our Executive Director Janet Morana and I, along with Georgette Forney of Anglicans for Life, gathered representatives of various healing ministries and first presented the idea of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign (www.SilentNoMore.com), a mobilization that would give voice to those who lost children to abortion, tell the world of their pain, and proclaim the healing that is available in Jesus Christ.

This movement shows what love is. We don’t reject those who do evil. Nor do we deny that what they did was evil.

What we do is invite them to let goodness drive the evil out. 

The people who have abortions, or who promote it, or who attack us and our centers are not the enemy. They are captive to the enemy, the ancient enemy of humanity, who wants to kill God, but knowing he cannot do so, kills what is made in the image and likeness of God – human lives.

By our love for all those lives, we set them free!