The Man Who Became Pro-Life After Presiding Over 75,000 Abortions

I often wonder why countless women who suffer with post-abortion pain and trauma spend their lives desperately trying to find validation within pro-abortion’s empty ideology. It is a movement which does nothing but exploit women in their most vulnerable state.

As the life of Dr. Bernard Nathanson demonstrates, there is no life too far-gone, no heart which cannot be transformed by truth, and no one beyond the reach of redemption and grace.

Dr. Bernard Nathanson could speak on abortion authoritatively, and knew the “procedure” better than almost anyone. He terminated the lives of many preborn children, one being his own child.

“At the end of the two years that I was the director of the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health in Manhattan, we had done 60,000 abortions. I myself, with my own hands, have done 5,000 abortions. I have supervised another 10,000 that residents have done under my direction. So I have 75,000 abortions in my life. Those are pretty good credentials to speak on the subject of abortion.”

Dr. Nathanson believed in what he called “reproductive rights” and co-founded NARAL- The National Abortion Rights Action League in 1969, which to this day remains one of the most radical abortion promoting organizations in the world.

Shortly after the advent of the ultrasound in the early 1970s, during a routine abortion, Dr. Nathanson asked a colleague to make an ultrasound recording of the procedure which he later watched.

He declared, “I was shaken to the very roots of my soul by what I saw,” and described the baby silently screaming in pain and trying to fight off the abortion instruments in the womb.

After this experience, Dr. Nathanson never performed another abortion again and became a pro-life advocate. It is no wonder abortion giant Planned Parenthood has been largely reported denying women ultrasounds before and during abortions if seeing an abortion has the potential to turn even an abortion doctor pro-life.

“Fewer women would have abortions if wombs had windows.” – Dr. Nathanson

Following his change of heart, Dr. Nathanson dedicated his career to exposing the lies of NARAL and the abortion industry. He explained how they often invented and distorted information to fit their agenda,

“We fed the public a line of deceit, dishonesty, a fabrication of statistics and figures. We succeeded because the time was right and the news media cooperated. We sensationalized the effects of illegal abortions, and fabricated polls. We unashamedly lied, and yet our statements were quoted by the media as though they had been written in law.”

To this day, NARAL has not changed their tactics. As recently as April 2018 they were caught fabricating stories during a court hearing in their fight against pregnancy resource centers in Connecticut.

Dr. Nathanson went on to create the documentary “The Silent Scream” in order to showcase the reality of abortion and authored “Aborting America” among other books. He spent the rest of his life working tirelessly to defend the pre-born and expose “pro-choice” lies.

If Dr. Nathanson could find peace and new life, women who are deceived by the abortion industry can also find the path to healing after abortion. To begin as Dr. Nathanson did, women must come to terms with the reality of abortion.

Although he has stated his change to pro-life was purely scientific, Dr. Nathanson found redemption in Christ and in 1996 was baptized at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. He died on February 21, 2011 after a long battle with cancer.

Whether through science, Jesus, or simply wanting to live a moral and ethical life, there are many paths leading to the moral side of the abortion debate.

For Dr. Nathanson, it was the simple realization of the scientific fact life begins at conception:

“A favorite pro-abortion tactic is to insist that the definition of when life begins is impossible; that the question is a theological or moral or philosophical one, anything but a scientific one. Fetology makes it undeniably evident that life begins at conception and requires all the protection and safeguards that any of us enjoy….As a scientist I know, not believe, know that human life begins at conception.”

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Human Defense Initiative.

Ana Julien

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