Dr. Bernard Nathanson+

Dr. Bernard Nathanson passed away February 21 of cancer. He was a hero to both the pro-abortion and pro-life movements, at different times of his life.  

As an abortion advocate, Dr. Nathanson was believed to have performed or presided at about 75,000 abortions and was one of the founders of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws or NARAL. 

After witnessing an abortion through ultrasound, he made a turn-around, convinced that the fetus is as human as a grown person.  He later produced a "Silent Scream" that was the first to show an abortion procedure through ultrasound. Pro-lifers regard Dr. Nathanson as a hero in the movement when he moved on to our side, and rightly so.  Some time later, he also became Catholic.

Here is an article about his passing from lifenews.com.

In 1996, Nathanson wrote his autobiography, The Hand of God, in which  he shared his journey from abortion practitioner and abortion advocate to becoming pro-life.

He noted, regretfully, “I am one of those who helped usher in this barbaric age.”

Nathanson also drew attention for his comments about the shooting of infamous late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller and he said he was surprised Tiller never became pro-life.

“I knew George Tiller years ago when I was on the pro-abortion side,” he told the Washington Times. “He came to a course I was giving in the technique of abortion in New York in 1970 under the auspices of NARAL. And I did late-term abortions until I changed my opinion as of 1980.”

“My switch to pro-life had nothing to do with religion,” he told the newspaper. “Tiller was a church-going man, which doesn’t say a whole lot in this country, but 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 continued.