Former Abortionist, Now Pro-Life, Gives Powerful Testimony on Capitol Hill
"All I could see was somebody's son or daughter."
(Washington, D.C.)—Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life led a team of pro-life advocates to Capitol Hill last week for a three-day educational demonstration directed at pro-choice members of Congress, which set out to reveal the gruesome reality of abortion.
Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino, a medical advisor for Priests for Life, walked his congressional audience step-by-step through the horrifying procedure of a typical abortion. The following is an excerpt from his testimony: "My wife and I had an infertility problem. We were unable to have children, and after several years of effort, we were very, very fortunate in being able to adopt a little girl whom we named Heather. As sometimes happens, after years of effort—and I mean three surgeries on my wife's part and everything else—we finally adopted a child, and my wife got pregnant the very next month. We ended up with two children just 10 months apart. We were very blessed that way.
"On June 23, 1984, my son was trying to cross the street, and my daughter, who was always the little mother, was running after him to tell him not to do that, and she was struck and killed by a car.
"If you haven't gone through that kind of tragedy, you don't have a clue. You may think you can imagine it, but trust me: You have no idea what it's like to lose a child, in any way.
"What do you do after a tragedy? You mourn for a while and you try to get back into your routine. I don't know how long after her death I had to do my first D&E abortion. I remember reaching in and literally ripping out an arm or a leg and looking at it in the clamp and I got sick. When you start an abortion you can't stop. If you leave anything behind, you [can] bet your patient is going to come back infected, bleeding or worse.
"I soldiered on and I finished that abortion."
But, Levatino said, something had changed.
"For the first time in my life I really looked at that pile of goo at the side of the table, and all of a sudden I didn't see her wonderful right to choose, and I didn't see the $600 wad of cash that I made in 15 minutes, and I couldn't think about what a great doctor I was because I took care of her problem. All I could see was somebody's son or daughter."
