Posted by
Billy on Monday, February 28, 2011 11:10:12 AM
Dr.
Bernard Nathanson, an obstetrician who estimated that he was involved in 75,000
abortions -- including one in the 1940s for his then-girlfriend, who had become
pregnant with his child -- before he became a leading pro-life activist, died
Monday of cancer in New York.
He was 84.
Dr.
Nathanson operated an abortion clinic in New
York during the 1960s and 70s and helped found the
National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, now called NARAL Pro-Choice
America, in 1969.
New
ultrasound technology provided images, he said, that changed his mind about the
morality of abortions. He performed his last such procedure in 1979 and became
a high-profile anti-abortion lecturer and campaigner.
In
the mid-1980s, Dr. Nathanson narrated "The
Silent Scream," a film that shows the abortion of a
three-month-old fetus in graphic detail and was screened at the White House by
President Ronald Reagan. (-Bernard Nathanson, abortion provider turned pro-life activist, )
Born
into a Jewish family in New York,
Dr. Nathanson converted to Catholicism in 1996. His wife, Christine
Reisner-Nathanson, told the Associated Press that he had been vilified by both
sides of the abortion debate:
"When
he was an abortion doctor he was seen as a pariah by the medical
community," she said, "and when he went pro-life he was scorned by
the women in the pro-abortion movement.
(Billy's
Thoughts>>> This should once again prove anyone can change. It is a
blessing to know that a soul who encouraged death later in life stood up
for life. We all should hope he came to know Jesus as his savior because belonging to a church regardless what the name of the church is doesn't
make anyone right with God.)
