From Abortionist To Pro-Life Hero - Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson RIP

Long before there was a Lila Rose, long before there was an Abby Johnson, there was Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson.

Born in 1926, his father was a prominant OB?GYN physician. Nathenson followed in his father's footsteps. While attending McGill University Medical College in Montreal, he had his first experience with abortion. He had gotten his girlfriend pregnant. He used the money received in the mail from his father to pay for her abortion, at a time when the procedure was illegal. “It served as my introductory excursion into the satanic world of abortion,” he later wrote.

He became board-certified in obstetrics gynecology in 1960. In the 60s he settled in New York & began his practice. He said that he saw plenty of poor women scared by illegal abortions. He once wrote “Illegal abortion was in 1967 the number one killer of pregnant women.”

In the 60s he got another girlfriend pregnant & performed the abortion himself. In his book, The Hand of God, he wrote about the experience. “I swear to you that I had no feelings aside from the sense of accomplishment, the pride of expertise.” He went on to describe the abortionist’s mindset: “icy; conscienceless; remorselessly perverting his medical skills; defiling his ethical charge; and helping, nay seducing, with his clinical calm, his oh-so-comforting professionalism, women into the act that comes closest to self-slaughter.”

In 1969 he attended a conference on abortion laws in Chicago. There he was elected to a committee to form what was then called National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws we now know it as NARAL Pro-Choice America. he later admitted that the numbers he once cited for NARAL concerning the number of deaths linked to illegal abortions were "false figures". He inflating the figure from a few hundred to 10,000 to gain sympathy for their cause. Unfortunately, even though evidence has shown how wrong these figures were is arround, these same figures are still being bandied arround by the pro-aborts to justify legal abortion.

After helping get New York's abortion law changed he opened Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health (CRASH), the 1st free standing abortion clinic. It was also the largest clinic in the world. & like many an other clinic, including some recently in the news, it didn't exactly do things as they should. In his book Aborting America, Nathanson described his successful efforts to keep CRASH from being shut down by health officials. It was finally closed in 1988 by the New York City health department. The closure stemmed from a patient death as well as licensing issues. Among othe findings, the inspectors discovered that the deceased patient's post-operative note, describing her as "pink, responsive, alert," had been entered into the chart before surgery had been initiated. Other shortcomings were similar to those Nathanson had described correcting during his own tenure, for example, ill-lit operating rooms & generally dirty conditions. You can read more about the reasons for closing it here.

During the time he ran CRASH he neglected his wife & young son. In 1972 he left the clinic but continued to perform abortions. He estimated that he presided over 75,000 abortions as director of the facility He also instructed fellow practitioners in the performance of 15,000 other abortions. 1 of those he helped train was late term abortionist George Tiller. Nathanson says that he personally performed about 5,000 abortions including late term abortions.

The 70s saw the advent of ultrasound technology. It was his viewing images from the new ultrasound technology in the 70s that convinced him of the humanity of the unborn baby. Talking after the death of Tiller he said he couldn't understand why Tiller never became Pro-life.He said that "one wonders why he never changed his mind based on the scientific evidence. That is where I changed my mind, based on fetoscopies and ultrasound studies.”
“Once we had ultrasound in place, we could study the fetus and see it was a member of our community. If you don’t do that, you’re just a creature of political ideology. In 1970, there were approximately 1,100 articles on the functioning of the fetus. By 1990, there were 22,000. The data piled up swiftly and opened a window into the womb." Nathanson did his last abortion in 1979.

In 1984, he made the documentary The Silent Scream. It showed an abortion from the perspective of ultrasound. In 1987 he made a 2nd documentary, Eclipse of Reason, that dealt with late-term abortions.

In the 90s he found himself drawn to the Catholic Church. At the time he described himself as a Jewish atheist. For several years he had been meeting with Fr. C. John McCloskey, an Opus Dei priest. In 1994 announced that he wanted to become a Catholic. this was a complete turnaround from the late 60s when, as a part of his work with NARAL, he targetted the Catholic Church, whose opposition to abortion they blamed for every botched illegal abortion they brought before the media.

Finally, in December of 1996 he was baptized a Catholic* by Cardinal John O’Connor in a private Mass with a group of friends in New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He also received confirmation & first Communion from the cardinal. Talking about his baptism, he said, “I was in a real whirlpool of emotion, and then there was this healing, cooling water on me, and soft voices, and an inexpressible sense of peace. I had found a safe place.”

In his 1996 autobiography The Hand of God, he outlined the enormous challenge of restoring a pro-life ethic: “Abortion is now a monster so unimaginably gargantuan that even to think of stuffing it back into its cage … is ludicrous beyond words. Yet that is our charge — a herculean endeavor.”

He admitted his regret saying “I am one of those who helped usher in this barbaric age.”
Up to the end he continued to do what he could to turn things arround. In 2008 he made the following video insupport of South Dakota Initiative 11.

Nathanson died at his home in New York Feb. 21 after a prolonged battle with cancer. He was 84. He is survived by his 4th wife, Christine. He is also survived by a son, Joseph, from a previous marriage.
While I never had the chance to meet Dr. Nathanson, I was very familiar with his work. The Silent Scream remains a milestone in the effort to get the truth out about abortion. It gave us the 1st graphic look at what an abortion does to a living human being. His conversion from pro-abortion to pro-life shows us that no one is so far gone that they can't realize the truth about abortion & change. We have truly lost a pro-life hero.
Many statements have been released mourning the passing of Dr. Nathanson. & I am sure many more will come out over the next few days. Naturally NARAL has nothing on their website about his death. To do so would be to admit that he was right about abortion & that their continued existance sould cease.

Source: Bernard Nathanson Dead at 84

Bernard Nathanson Passes Away, Was Early Abortion Muckraker

Former abortionist, top pro-life advocate Bernard Nathanson dies at 84

Fr. Pavone mourns passing of Dr. Bernard Nathanson

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* I find it interesting to see the number of former abortion supporters who have become Catholic. Besides Dr. Nathanson, there are Norma McCorvey, the Roe of Roe v Wade, & Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood clinic director who is in the process of joining the Catholic Church. Also Lila Rose converted to Catholicism.