Dr. Bernard Nathanson
There was no single orchestrator of widespread abortion access in America. No one person who convinced the greater public that it was socially acceptable to kill a child because it was "unwanted" or "unplanned." Rather, the fault lies with about half a dozen activists, propagandists, and doctors who, in the 1960s and '70s, deftly worked together to create the single biggest healthcare lie in American history: "Abortion is safe and necessary." Among the guilty are Margaret Sanger, Larry Lader, Betty Friedan, Helen Gurley Brown, and Dr. Bernard Nathanson. Each of them should be investigated and exposed for their part in making abortion mainstream, but, out of respect for my word count, let's look at them one at a time and in individual editions. To begin, let's take a look at perhaps the most reformed person on that list, only because he eventually did repent and worked to repair the damage he had done.
Bernard Nathanson was born in New York in 1926, and, thanks to the influence of his OB/GYN father, he was steeped in the medical field from a very early age. Earning a degree from McGill university in 1949, he would eventually follow in his father's footsteps, enjoying a profitable career and then then quickly gaining the respect of many in the medical community. Quick-witted and congenial, he gained so much respect that he began to rub shoulders with a few hidden giants of history, including the propagandist Larry Lader, a man whose name Nathanson's would soon become eternally linked to. Becoming fast friends, the two men often had lunch together and it quickly became apparent to both that they shared a common goal.
While the practice of abortion is almost as old as civilization itself and was actually commonplace in ancient Rome and Medieval Europe, the straitlaced Judeo-Christian values of the American '60s made the act of abortion unspoken about and nearly unthinkable. But, as progressives who saw abortion as a "necessary" medical advancement (and for Lader, who was an apostle of the eugenicist Hugh Moore, and easy method of population control), Lader and Nathanson wanted to dismantle any and all abortion restriction in America and make the practice of killing a child as commonplace has getting a flu shot.
Like a veritable Wormwood, Nathanson followed Lader's lead and buckled down to unrestricted abortion access with an end goal for bringing the issue to the Supreme Court. The two men worked doggedly, but soon realized that their personal opinions could not sway an entire nation. So, at Lader's suggestion, Nathanson looked for a large group whose cause could be co-opted to fit their own. Quickly hitting on NOW (the National Organization for Women) led by Betty Friedan, Lader and Nathanson used their charm, persuasiveness, and eventually outright lies and fabricated data to convince Betty that their ideas were good for her organization and that the ability to dispose of unwanted children would provide the liberation women were seeking. It took years of work, but, in 1967, the two men successfully convinced Betty to make access to abortion on of the core demands of the Women's Movement. In an instant, abortion went from a small issue that most thought unthinkable to a defining leg of a movement that millions felt compelled to defend. Under the guise of "women's health," abortion had a million supporters blindly selling a practice that ultimately undermined their whole platform. With this new support, Lader and Nathanson were able to bring their vision of all-access death to the Supreme Court and, in 1973, its ratification as Roe v. Wade was widely celebrated.
You could be forgiven for hating Dr. Bernard Nathanson. His work brought about the genocide of our time (or as he would later call it, "a barbaric age") and, after Roe was passed, he personally contributed to over 75,000 abortion (7% of the deaths under Roe), which included his own child when he preformed an abortion on a girlfriend. The majority of his life was dedicated to the destruction of the innocent and it seemed like he was beyond redemption. But, despite everything he had done, God didn't hate Dr. Nathanson and, in fact, He had a plan for the doctor's life. His story doesn't end with Roe.
In his later years, Nathanson took a job as the director of obstetrics at a hospital in New York City. After an encounter with a sidewalk counselor and with a growing understanding that life does, in fact, begin at the moment of conception, Dr. Nathanson finally saw the humanity of even the smallest children. His heart began to change and, in 1996, he made the leap to the other side and became Pro-Life. That same year he made a personal confession of faith in Christ.
Faced with the realization that his work had been instrumental in the legalized deaths of millions, Dr. Nathanson spent the rest of his life advocating for the rights of preborn babies. He wrote books on the dignity of life in the womb, he exposed all the skeletons that Lader had tried to hide, and, until his death in 2011, he whole-heartedly stood against the tide of genocide that he had created. Once he took up the mantle of life, Dr. Nathanson never once wavered, and even now his legacy of life after death is an inspiration to future generations of Pro-Lifers.
Photo Credit: The New York Times.com
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