The Conversation That Echoes Across Generations
Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, has shared an extraordinary firsthand account of a conversation with Saint Teresa of Calcutta—one that resonates deeply in today’s political and moral battles over life and law. Reflecting on his work during the early 1990s and his extensive interaction with Mother Teresa during the last years of her life, Pavone recalls a striking response she gave after hearing about the U.S. Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
“Fr. Frank, if we had that law here in India, I would have been thrown in jail many times.”
This wasn’t a poetic metaphor. It was a literal truth. Mother Teresa explained that she would personally go to abortion sites in India, take women by the arm, and lead them away—offering help, hope, and life.
The FACE Act: A Law with a Chilling Effect
Signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, the FACE Act was ostensibly designed to protect access to abortion clinics by criminalizing interference, intimidation, or obstruction. Yet as Pavone recounts, the law has been used—particularly under the Biden administration—as a political cudgel against peaceful pro-life activists.
Pavone criticizes the law not just for its vagueness and weaponization, but for the philosophical absurdity it represents: punishing compassion in the name of access, and criminalizing efforts to save lives.
“They say we intimidate, but what we do is offer love. We are peaceful, but we will intervene.”
President Trump’s Executive Action—and a Path Forward
In contrast to recent prosecutions, Pavone notes that President Donald Trump, in the early days of his second term, pardoned several FACE Act defendants and moved to curtail the law’s discriminatory enforcement through executive action. Now, Pavone and others are urging full legislative repeal of the law in the 119th Congress.
The message is clear: America must decide whether it protects the right to kill the unborn or the right to peacefully try to save them.
A Saint’s Endorsement—and a Nation’s Reckoning
Pavone’s story gives a human face—and a saintly one—to the movement to abolish FACE. When Saint Teresa herself says she would have broken such a law, it’s no longer merely a question of legality. It becomes a question of conscience.
“This law tries to put a cap on our love,” Pavone says. “But there is no cap on love.”
