Frank Anthony Pavone (born February 4, 1959) is an American anti-abortion activist and a laicised former Roman Catholic priest.

He is also the president of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, an umbrella group of various anti-abortion Christian denominations, and the pastoral director of the Silent No More campaign.

In February 2023, Pavone was asked to step down as national director of Priests for Life after allegations were released that he sexually harassed multiple women.

[1] Pavone was ordained to the priesthood on November 12, 1988, by Cardinal John O'Connor, then Archbishop of New York, and was assigned to St. Charles Church in Staten Island.

Pavone was also honored at the annual "Proudly Pro-Life" award dinner which was organized by the National Right to Life Committee and hosted at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York.

[7] After a difference in opinion with Cardinal Edward Egan in New York, Pavone sought and received a transfer to the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas.

[8] Pavone informed Egan that he wanted to continue to pursue anti-abortion work on a full-time basis and that Bishop John Yanta of Amarillo, Texas, had agreed to support this.

[10] In March 2005, the Diocese of Amarillo announced that Pavone would establish a religious community called Missionaries of the Gospel of Life, a collective of priests and seminarians exclusively dedicated to anti-abortion work.

[16] Pavone was dismissed from the clerical state by decree of the Dicastery for the Clergy for "blasphemous communications on social media" and "persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop".

[16] Pavone provided much commentary during the Terri Schiavo controversy, having been on the limited visitors' list and at her bedside many times, including during her final hours.

He delivered the homily at Schiavo's funeral Mass at the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Gulfport, Florida, on April 5, 2005.

Shulman indicated that Pavone would be killed if Scott Roeder, the murderer of George Tiller (who had been an abortion provider from Wichita, Kansas), was acquitted.

Pavone was both friend[30] and spiritual mentor to McCorvey in the later years of her life, as she came to regret her involvement in the abortion rights issue in the early 1970s.

[33] In 2011, Pavone was involved in assisting the family of Moe Maraachli, a Canadian man who, with his wife, sought a medical procedure for their dying son, who came to be known as "Baby Joseph", but were refused the treatment in Canada.

They turned to Pavone for assistance, and he arranged, through his Priests for Life organization, to have the baby transferred to SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri, where the child received a tracheotomy,[34] and then to have him flown back home, breathing on his own without a machine.

In 2013, Pavone presided over a service to give names to the 45 human fetuses found in Kermit Gosnell's Philadelphia abortion clinic.

[39] These cases challenged an Obama administration mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services that the petitioners said violated their religious freedom by forcing them to be complicit in the process of providing insurance coverage for contraception and certain forms of abortion.

[59] In November 2014, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, and former president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to the bishops of the United States to advise them that the Congregation of the Clergy had conducted an apostolic visitation of PFL the previous year, and had subsequently requested that he "assist Father Pavone with several necessary reforms."

"[8] On November 7, 2016, Pavone, a member of Donald Trump's 33-member Catholic advisory council,[60] presented a live video in which he appeared with what he claimed was the body of an unclothed aborted fetus and placed it on a table.

While Pavone garnered support from some quarters,[61] negative reactions were widespread, and many observers believed that the table was a consecrated church altar.

[62] Ed Mechmann, director of public policy for the Archdiocese of New York, said that "A human being has been sacrificed and the altar of God has been desecrated, all for politics.

"[63] Bishop Patrick Zurek of the Amarillo, Texas diocese, said the video was "... against the dignity of human life and is a desecration of the altar," and "is not consistent with the beliefs of the Catholic Church.

[20] In February 2023, Pavone was asked to step down as national director of Priests for Life after allegations were released that he sexually harassed multiple women.