In a libelous statement made against those involved in the pro-life movement, New York State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman sent a letter to his supporters linking Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, with those involved in criminal attacks against abortionists.
Schneiderman called on his friends at NARAL, Planned Parenthood and NOW to join him in a demonstration on April 25. It was on that evening that Father Pavone was honored at a National Right to Life dinner at New York’s Waldorf Astoria. Confronting Schneiderman at the rally was Msgr. Michael Wrenn, pastor at St. John the Evangelist in New York.
In a letter of April 11, Schneiderman called attention to the recent capture of James Kopp, the person accused of killing Dr. Barnett Slepian. He mentioned how a recent court decision found it legal for a radical pro-life group, the Nuremberg Files, to post information about abortionists on its website. He then linked Father Pavone and the “enemies of choice” at the National Right to Life Committee to these extremists. He said that Father Pavone “openly advocates criminal activity to harass abortion providers,” without ever providing evidence for this remarkable accusation.
William Donohue ripped Schneiderman in a news release. He began by acknowledging that there are “irresponsible people in the pro-life movement, some of whom are downright crazy.” However, Donohue said, “most of them are good, decent people who simply want to end the killing.” “On the other side,” he pointed out, “we have groups like NARAL, an organization that is on record saying that in instances when a child is born alive after an attempted abortion—and is fully separated from his mother—he should be allowed to die.”
Donohue continued saying, “If the letter written by New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman had been written by someone from NARAL, it would be considered par for the course. But when a sitting public official writes such an incendiary letter, it is outrageous.”
The rally had no effect on the evening’s events. Father Pavone thanked the league for defending him, something we will never hesitate to do.
