Pavone Changes his Mind on IVF?

I’ve had to take a hiatus from reporting on the pro-life movement.

My veteran readers know I ended up big-fish-in-a-small-pond famous in 2016 when I wrote an article condemning Frank Pavone for his abuse of a corpse as part of a political stunt to campaign for Donald Trump. Many of my fellow Patheos bloggers wrote about Pavone’s stunt at the same time, but my post is the one that went viral somehow. People started messaging me with all kinds of evidence that the corpse was in fact decades old, and I compiled that evidence and presented it. Next thing I knew, another reader was telling me Pavone wasn’t even a priest in good standing, and I called the diocese to verify, and found that it was true, and went viral again.  Every time I gained a little notoriety, I got a wave of harassment and abuse from pro-lifers: when all the while I didn’t do anything but point to evidence that was public information, and speak out against an obvious fraudster. I haven’t done anything but remark on what he was doing right out in front of us.

Somewhere in there I had to condemn Abby Johnson for her overt racism, and then I got libeled by father Imbarrato, and then there were the shenanigans at PAAU, and I’ve come to realize that the pro-life movement is a confidence game. That doesn’t mean that abortion isn’t a serious bioethical issue. It is. It means these people are the leaders of a movement of fraudsters who just want money, power, and to elect Republican politicians. If we’re going to talk about abortion and what should be done about it, we’re going to have to start from scratch.

Meanwhile, the United States’ abortion rates started to go up in 2017, when Republicans got everything they wanted on a platter. They continued to rise after the Dobbs decision. They’re rising now. Pro-lifers keep scoring victories, and the result is more abortions every time. That’s all that ever happens when you give the pro-life movement an inch: babies die at a higher rate, and the mothers aren’t safe either.

If I’ve said all this once, I’ve said it a thousand times. I’m exhausted just writing it, and I don’t blame anyone who closed the tab and didn’t finish the post several paragraphs ago. This is just to say, I’m not following or investigating the pro-life movement very much anymore. I don’t know when I will again. It’s not my beat right now.

Because I’m not paying attention, I didn’t see the latest scandal from Frank Pavone until just a bit ago. My Patheos colleague Father Pablo Mingone wrote about it, and his take is a very good one. In response to Trump’s rather toothless executive order, Pavone tweeted: On IVF: don’t overthink what Pres Trump is doing or why he does not share our moral position. He wants to help families have babies, because he believes life is a beautiful blessing. That’s it. I much prefer that to the Democrat enemies of babies and the family.

I  feel like I’m living in Bizarro World.

NOW we’re not supposed to overthink someone who doesn’t exactly share our moral position? Not when Obama expanded Medicaid so more women could have babies without a financial disaster? Not when Biden expanded the child tax credit or when Kamala made various proposals to make it easier to have children or at any other time when any politician who isn’t a Republican did ANYTHING to try and help people have babies because they believe life is a beautiful blessing? Only when Trump, a sexual predator, supposedly wants to help families have babies, which he absolutely doesn’t want to do?

IVF treatments destroy scores of embryos. Is that immoral or not?

I’m glad Pavone is finally being honest about something. Not about his cadaver collection or his abuse of women or his finances or his status as a priest in good standing, of course. But he’s honest about the fact that he doesn’t really care about the unborn.

He’s adamant and uncompromising about the lives of unborn babies, right up until a Republican is the one advocating an anti-unborn-baby position, and then he’s suddenly pro-choice.

All he ever cared about– all the pro-life movement cares about– is advancing the current extremist Republican agenda, no matter who dies.

I may be the only one, but I actually want to save lives and help people. I’m not putting on an act. That’s what I want to do.

I’m done with the pro-life movement.

There’s nothing more to say.

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross, The Sorrows and Joys of Mary, and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.