Two adversaries on abortion have forged an unlikely partnership to sell a simple message of civility. Leading pro-life advocate Father Frank Pavone and a longtime abortion defender have released a joint statement calling on an end to abortion violence and civility in an abortion debate atmosphere that can easily become hostile and confrontational.
“We … are convinced that no matter what our opposite convictions are about abortion and related issues that people on opposite sides of this controversy have to be treated with respect,” said Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life.
“That doesn't mean we're calling for compromise,” Pavone hastened to add. “We work very hard for our respective causes, but we don't dehumanize people on the other side of the debate, either by violence or by deliberate insult.”
Pavone's partner in the endeavor is “abortion pioneer” Bill Baird, director of the Pro Choice League. Baird first gained fame as the defendant in the 1972 Supreme Court case Baird v. Eisenstadt, which struck down a state law prohibiting distribution of contraceptives. In fact, Justice Harry Blackmun later cited the Baird case as the precedent for the Roe v. Wade,which legalized abortion.
Baird and Pavone met some seven years ago and became gradually acquainted as Baird regularly protested annual National Right to Life conventions.
“One of our goals with this joint statement is that it should become more common,” said Pavone. “I encourage people who picket the abortion clinics to form friendships with the people who work inside and maybe get together for lunch and things like that.”
Pavone is hoping that personal contact will lead to better mutual understanding on the subject of abortion, so that, for example, fewer abortion advocates will believe that all pro-lifers are motivated by religious beliefs that they want to impose on others, or that they have no concern about the well being of women.
“You have to have a lot of patience,” Pavone conceded. “I know that this is not something that everyone feels capable of doing.”
But many activists on both sides of the abortion issue will remain skeptical.
Marjorie Signer, spokesperson for the Coalition for Reproductive Choice, agrees that uncivil behavior is too common. “Its effect is to make women feel threatened … and to deny women the ability to freely exercise what they think is in their best interest,” said Signer, citing abortion protestors who scream at women entering abortion facilities.
Signer recalled one clinic protestor who, rather than quietly handing out literature or holding a sign, yelled at women: “don't kill your baby.”
“People would walk in, they would just be shivering,” said Signer, even if they weren't coming in for an abortion.
Pavone and Baird start at a disadvantage because their message comes from two men, not women, Signer said. Others have made similar effort, with little measurable effect, she added.
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)”