CONFESSION OF AN EX-ABORTIONIST

http://www.aboutabortions.com/Confess.html ^ | Dr. Bernard Nathanson

[cpforlife.org]

I am personally responsible for 75,000 abortions.

This legitimises my credentials to speak to you with some authority on the issue. I was one of the founders of the National Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Laws (NARAL) in the U.S. in 1968. A truthful poll of opinion then would have found that most Americans were against permissive abortion. Yet within five years we had convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to issue the decision which legalised abortion throughout America in 1973 and produced virtual abortion on demand up to birth. How did we do this? It is important to understand the tactics involved because these tactics have been used throughout the western world with one permutation or another, in order to change abortion law.

THE FIRST KEY TACTIC WAS TO CAPTURE THE MEDIA

We persuaded the media that the cause of permissive abortion was a liberal enlightened, sophisticated one. Knowing that if a true poll were taken, we would be soundly defeated, we simply fabricated the results of fictional polls. We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60% of Americans were in favour of permissive abortion. This is the tactic of the serf-fulfilling lie. Few people care to be in the minority. We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000 but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1,000,000. Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000. These false figures took root in the consciousness of Americans convincing many that we needed to crack the abortion law. Another myth we fed to the public through the media was that legalising abortion would only mean that the abortions taking place illegally would then be done legally. In fact, of course, abortion is now being used as a primary method of birth control in the U.S. and the annual number of abortions has increased by 1500% since legalisation.

THE SECOND KEY TACTIC WAS TO PLAY THE CATHOLIC CARD

We systematically vilified the Catholic Church and its "socially backward ideas" and picked on the Catholic hierarchy as the villain in opposing abortion. This theme was played endlessly. We fed the media such lies as "we all know that opposition to abortion comes from the hierarchy and not from most Catholics" and "Polls prove time and again that most Catholics want abortion law reform". And the media drum-fired all this into the American people, persuading them that anyone opposing permissive abortion must be under the influence of the Catholic hierarchy and that Catholics in favour of abortion are enlightened and forward-looking. An inference of this tactic was that there were no non- Catholic groups opposing abortion. The fact that other Christian as well as non-Christian religions were {and still are) monolithically opposed to abortion was constantly suppressed, along with pro-life atheists' opinions.

THE THIRD KEY TACTIC WAS THE DENIGRATION AND SUPPRESSION OF ALL SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE THAT LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION

I am often asked what made me change my mind. How did I change from prominent abortionist to pro-life advocate? In 1973, I became director of obstetrics of a large hospital in New York City and had to set up a prenatal research unit, just at the start of a great new technology which we now use every day to study the foetus in the womb. A favourite 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. Foetology makes it undeniably evident that life begins at conception and requires all the protection and safeguards that any of us enjoy. Why, you may well ask, do some American doctors who are privy to the findings of foetology, discredit themselves by carrying out abortions? Simple arithmetic at $300 a time, 1.55 million abortions means an industry generating $500,000,000 annually, of which most goes into the pocket of the physician doing the abortion. It is clear that permissive abortion is purposeful destruction of what is undeniably human life. It is an impermissible act of deadly violence. One must concede that unplanned pregnancy is a wrenchingly difficult dilemma, but to look for its solution in a deliberate act of destruction is to trash the vast resourcefulness of human ingenuity, and to surrender the public weal to the classic utilitarian answer to social problems.

AS A SCIENTIST I KNOW, NOT BELIEVE, KNOW THAT HUMAN LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION

Although I am not a formal religionist, I believe with all my heart that there is a divinity of existence which commands us to declare a final and irreversible halt to this infinitely sad and shameful crime against humanity.

[Dr. Nathanson has since converted to Catholicism, being baptised in 1996.]

[cpforlife.org]

Dr. Nathanson's conversion story is testimony that all things are possible with God.

The Hand Of God (Click on “abortion: books” then scroll.)

Item #2000P - Book - "The Hand Of God" Dr. Nathanson's journey from atheist and prominent abortionist to Christianity and the pro-life movement is part autobiography, part spiritual memoir, and part scientific and philosophical treatise. An extraordinary book. 240 pgs, paperback.

[cpforlife.org]

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[cpforlife.org]

Caught Sleeping

Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life

"I don’t want the Church to be caught sleeping again…"

This is the heartfelt desire which the man who was a key player in bringing us legal abortion, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, has expressed to me regarding the bioethical challenges of the 21st century. Dr. Nathanson maintains that in the '60's, he and his colleagues at NARAL (at that time, the "National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws") literally "stole the issue" from the Church. In speaking to clergy, he says, "We would never have gotten away with what we did if you had been united, purposeful, and strong."

The new bioethical challenges have shaped the news and everyday discourse: embryonic stem cell research, genetic manipulation, and human cloning. Those who want to advance science-fiction agendas will still not get away with what they are doing if the Church is united, purposeful, and strong.

One of the many key insights which Evangelium vitae provides about these issues is a play on words. The English word "matter" and the Latin word "mater" ("mother") express two ways of looking at creation, including human life. The Holy Father writes, "[O]nce all reference to God has been removed, it is not surprising that the meaning of everything else becomes profoundly distorted. Nature itself, from being "mater" (mother), is now reduced to being "matter", and is subjected to every kind of manipulation" (n.22).

To put this another way, we can look at creation and consider how useful it is, or we can look at creation and reverently marvel at it. These two visions are not mutually exclusive. To marvel at the beauty of a tree doesn't mean we can't use it for lumber. But the danger lies in reducing our vision entirely to "matter." This is particularly dangerous when it comes to human life, because a person is not a thing, and is never to be treated as a thing. The drive to "use" embryos and their cells, and to "manipulate" the genetic code, necessarily puts the person in the category of a thing, despite any "good intentions."

The new bioethical challenges do not replace abortion as a central focus, because the assertion in Roe vs. Wade that "the word person…does not include the unborn" provides the foundation for the type of thinking behind these new challenges. As our bishops have pointed out, "Nations are not machines or equations. They are like ecosystems. A people's habits, beliefs, values and institutions intertwine like a root system. Poisoning one part will eventually poison it all... So it is with the legacy of Roe vs. Wade" (Living the Gospel of Life, 1998, n.9).

The way out of this mess is not going to be easy. Sleeping is easy; vigilance has a price. Fundamentally, if the Church is not to be caught asleep again, we have to prioritize our activities, and devote more resources to both education and activism in the defense of life. This work cannot be a hobby; it will require us to give everything. But that should sound familiar to Christians.

[Cap'n Crunch]

bump

[cpforlife.org]

Dr. Bernard Nathanson to the Church: "We would never have gotten away with what we did if you had been united, purposeful, and strong."

Perhaps after 30 years and 42+ million dead--it is time to get united, purposeful, and strong.

[Fzob]

I am personally responsible for 75,000 abortions.

What a burden to bear. I hope he found peace.

[cynicom]

One would have to wonder if the good doctor and his brethern will work as feverishly to abort this horrible law as they did to give it birth. I doubt it.

[RLK]

In fact, of course,
abortion is now being used as a primary method of birth control in the
U.S. and the annual number of abortions has increased by 1500% since
legalisation.

[kitkat]

BUMP
BOOKMARK

[anniegetyourgun]

On this issue, it was being said by Dr. F. Schaeffer as well...just a bit earlier. Truth is, through the millenia, many have been voices crying in the wilderness for unification in the LORD, for His purposes, and in His strength.

[xJones]

Knowing that if a true poll were taken, we would be soundly defeated, we simply fabricated the results of fictional polls. We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60% of Americans were in favour of permissive abortion. This is the tactic of the serf-fulfilling lie. Few people care to be in the minority. We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000 but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1,000,000. Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000.

My Lord, they lied their heads off, and there was no factual correction or counter-attack.

[2timothy3.16]

Please add me to your ping list. Thanks

[RS]

This book was published 2 years ago, and it appears the article was writen much before that -

Does news/activism now allow advertising ?

[Beth]

Please add me to your ping list.

Thanks.

[Leo Carpathian]

My Lord, they lied their heads off, and there was no factual correction or counter-attack.

... and they keep lying, "polling" on other subjects, fabricating figures of convenience to support their "facts" about guns, gays, PC, history, AIDS, Hillary, .... you name it. They have no shame or scrupules. Time to vote decent people into government and dump the scumbags to the trash bin of history.

Freep & Roll!

[arasina]

Pinging you on this because it's interesting. :-)

[MHGinTN]

It is astonishing to me that the SCOTUS will not revisit their ruling of 1973, despite the facts proving the case was based entirely of lies and fabrications of data that led to the ruling. THAT is the horror of SCOTUS activism that not has been responsible for tens of millions of slaughtered unborn and counting.

[cpforlife.org]

"Never, never will we desist till we. . . extinguish every trace of this bloody traffic, of which our posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times will scarce believe that it has been suffered to exist so long a disgrace and dishonor to this country"

William Wilberforce:
Member of Parliament who led the fight for the abolition of slavery in Great Britain.

[LoveBushLongTime]

Thankfully, the left no longer controls the media. We are speaking up against their injustices and we are holding them accountable.

[cpforlife.org]

Who are the unborn?

I AM:

A CHILD OF GOD

THE HEART OF A MARRIAGE

THE FOUNDATION OF A FAMILY

THE FUTURE OF OUR REPUBLIC

A CITIZEN--WAITING AND WANTING TO BE BORN

A PERSON

DESTROY ME--AND YOU DESTROY THE FUTURE