Father Dan Pattee of Franciscan University
is interviewed by
Emily Stimpson
and talks faith, life, and human rights. Excerpts:
...OSV: Did spending weekend after weekend praying at abortion centers across the country change how you see the abortion industry?
Father Pattee:
It did. As the weeks went by, I started noticing that these centers
tended to be unmarked. You often would have no way of knowing what was
going on inside except for the pro-life groups praying outside on the
sidewalks. It’s like they’re trying to cultivate a stealth presence.
Others
have very misleading names. In Shreveport, La., the abortion center is
called the Hope Family Care Center. There is deception at the heart of
the abortion movement, and that comes across even in the way their
centers look. Of course, along the way, it came out in far worse ways as
well.
OSV: Like what?
Father Pattee:
The reason they always give for keeping abortion legal is that it’s
necessary to keep women safe. But to make that argument, they have to
cover up all the ways abortion is not safe for women and all the
terrible things that happen to women inside abortion clinics.
For
example, in Birmingham, Ala., right before we got there, two ambulances
came rushing to the abortion center, and two women were carried out on
gurneys. The pro-lifers standing outside took pictures, but if they
hadn’t, no one would have known about that. Again, in Jackson, Miss.,
the day before we arrived, the court permitted the last abortion center
in the state to stay open for another 90 days so that it could find a
way to bring itself into compliance with the law that requires only
OB-GYNs perform abortions. Before that, they were allowing people who
weren’t doctors to do abortions. No OB-GYN was present.
Then,
there was the case in Chicago this summer, where a woman died because
the clinic workers held off on calling 911. They knew she was in
trouble, but they didn’t want it to look bad for the clinic. Again,
there is deception at the heart of the pro-abortion movement. They claim
they’re all about the health and well-being of the mother, but their
actions say otherwise.
OSV: Before Andrew Moore’s death, what was the hardest moment of the walk for you?
Father Pattee: That
was in El Paso.
