Dr. Bernard Nathanson, R.I.P.

On Monday we lost one of our great pro-life advocates, a man who at one time was among the leading abortionists in the country. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who in his lifetime performed upwards of 75,000 abortions before he came to accept the horror of what he had done, died of cancer in New York at the age of 84.

It was the development of ultrasound technology that caused Dr. Nathanson to realize the truth about abortion and turned him into a strong defender of life. Drawing on that same technology in 1984 he produced the film, The Silent Scream, depicting what actually happens to the unborn baby during an abortion. Some years later he produced a second film, Eclipse of Reason, about late-term and partial-birth abortions. But Dr. Nathanson's journey didn't end with his pro-life conversion. God had another conversion in store for him, and in 1996 this self-described "Jewish atheist" entered the Catholic Church. He was baptized by a man I knew and loved, Cardinal John O'Connor. With the reception of that first sacrament the doctor received the healing he he had sought so long, the healing of his soul and the forgiveness for all his sins, including those thousands of abortions.

I met Dr. Nathanson only once, years ago and very briefly at a pro-life gathering in Boston, and was admittedly surprised by his quiet humility as we exchanged a few words. Those who knew him well remark that he underwent much internal suffering as a result of his years as an abortionist; but fortunately, for Dr. Nathanson and for all of us, we have a loving and forgiving God who forgets all sinfulness in the waters of baptism and through the absolution of the confessional.

Rest in peace, Doctor, in God's loving embrace and that of those 75,000 innocent souls who unlike the rest of us never learned to hate or condemn.


Read an obituary here: Dr. Bernard Nathanson.