[1] PFL functions as a network to promote and coordinate anti-abortion activism, especially among Roman Catholic priests and laymen, with the primary strategic goal of ending abortion and euthanasia, and to spread the message of the Evangelium vitae encyclical, written by Pope John Paul II.

On April 30, 1991, Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco officially approved Priests for Life as a Private Association of the Faithful, a term drawn from the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

Pavone remained a priest in good standing until 2022, and the bishop did not allege fiscal impropriety,[4] Gospel of Life Ministries lost its tax-exempt status for failure to file required documentation, according to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) records.

[13] On February 15, 2012, Priests for Life filed a lawsuit against the contraception mandate, claiming that the Health and Human Services (HSS) ruling is unconstitutional on many levels.

In November 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to review the case, which it combined with six other similar challenges to the Health and Human Services' Contraceptive Mandate under Zubik v. Burwell.

[28] In 2003, Priests for Life signed a nonviolence joint statement[29] with Bill Baird who is "called by some media the 'father' of the birth control and abortion-rights movement.

A statement by Papal Nuncio Christophe Pierre cited the non-affiliated nature of Priests for Life and said: "Mr. Pavone's continuing role in it as a lay person would be entirely up to the leadership of that organization".

The Canadian organization stated that it was "deeply disturbed" by the actions of Priests for Life national director Frank Pavone in displaying the purported body of an aborted child on an altar.