November 15, 2004

Dear Friends,

Below you will find my column for this week.

Let me thank you again for all the work you did for Elections 2004. I would like to
hear more about the kinds of activities you engaged in for the election, because I
am preparing a report on what Catholics did nationwide, and will be able to
present an overall picture of this activity to those who serve us in public office.
Would you email me within the next couple of days at vote@priestsforlife.org and
tell me about what you did? Be sure to include your state and county! Thanks in
advance!

And planning ahead, I will again be leading the interdenominational prayer service
in the United States Senate in Washington DC prior to the March for Life 2005.
The March this year is on Monday, January 24 (because January 22 is on a
Saturday). We will pray in one of the Senate buildings (exact location to be
announced) starting at 8:45am and will leave you plenty of time to get to the
Ellipse for the start of the March. No reservations are needed. Please come with
your groups for this beautiful event of prayer and praise right in the heart of our
nation's government!

And as you plan your Christmas shopping, don't forget our Priests for Life
products at www.priestsforlife.org/products

God bless you!

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director

Abortion and Child Abuse - Part One
Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director, Priests for Life

In our baptismal vows, we promise to renounce Satan, all his works, "and all his
empty promises."

One of his empty promises in unleashing abortion upon our nation was that
somehow the availability of this procedure would decrease the incidence of child
abuse. The reasoning went something like this: if unwanted children are aborted,
then only wanted children will be born, and since wanted children are less likely to
be abused, then child abuse will decrease in a land of abortion on demand!

Yet it was an empty promise. Exactly the opposite has happened. Since the
legalization of abortion, child abuse has increased.

The promise had a fatal flaw in it, namely, the assumption that unwanted children
are more likely to be abused. As E.F. Lenoski reported as early as 1976, the
opposite is actually true. Abuse is more likely to occur among "wanted" children.
Canadian psychiatrist Philip Ney reports the same findings. He writes, "When I
investigated the relationship between child abuse and abortion and reported a
direct correlation, people were angry and astonished. It appeared that the rate of
child abuse did not decrease with freely available abortions. In fact, the opposite
was true. In parts of Canada where there were low rates of abortion there were
low rates of child abuse. As the rates of abortion increased, so did child
abuse...Indeed, it is a vicious cycle. That is, parents who have been involved in
abortion are more likely to abuse and neglect their children. Mothers and fathers
who were abused as children are more likely to abort their child" (Deeply
Damaged, p.91).

The first thing that has to be noted when examining the relationship between
abortion and child abuse is that abortion is child abuse. Dismembering a born child
would certainly be considered among the worst possible forms of abuse. Medical
textbooks and court testimonies use the very same word, "dismemberment," to
describe what is done to an unborn child by abortion. How, then, is this not child
abuse?

Allowing the abuse of an unborn child, then, creates an atmosphere in which --
more quietly and secretly -- we justify the abuse of born children. The child
becomes the scapegoat for our unresolved conflicts. As the Israelites in the Old
Testament placed their sins upon the goat, who was then led out into the desert, we
allow the child, particularly when still in the womb, to suffer for our sins

The two forms of child abuse -- on the unborn (abortion) and on the born --
reinforce each other by a mutual causality. Abortion results in more post-partum
depression, which inhibits bonding with subsequent children. Conversely, the
wounds of abuse are echoed in the essentially self-destructive act of abortion later
in life.

In subsequent columns we will examine these connections more fully. It should be
noted that we are talking here about psychological dynamics and statistical
correlation, and that does not mean that every woman who has had an abortion
will be a poor mother.

Comments on this column?  Contact Priests for Life at PO Box 141172, Staten
Island, NY 10314; Tel: 888-PFL-3448, 718-980-4400; Fax: 718-980-6515; email:
mail@priestsforlife.org; web: www.priestsforlife.org