From the snopes, he defended/explained it:

I ... mentioned that the church is being attacked for [sex abuse] sometimes by elements that are a bit anti-Christian ... I said there are other scandals, such as abortion which are under-reported and because abortion destroys innocent life you could say it's a worse scandal.

Fuck me, doesn’t he see that abusing children absolutely destroys that child’s life, too? And that scripture recognizes him as … human… where scripture doesn’t recognize a fetus as such?

Like, that’s even worse a thing to say…

Pell made the infamous statement during a World Youth Day event in July 2002, in reply to an American youth minister's asking him how Catholics should respond to questions regarding the findings of systematic sexual abuse committed by church officials. When asked to explain his rationale, Pell (who at the time was the Archbishop of Sydney) said, "Because [abortion] is always a destruction of human life."

Yeah, switching topics here is how you guarantee you aren't a pedophile, right. It's so obvious he covers himself or someone he knows. They all are sick, and sick with power.

Thanks for referencing to a fact-checking article.