Fr. Raymond de Souza on Dr. Bernard Nathanson, RIP

His first book, Aborting America, revealed the advocacy tactics of the abortion industry. The claim he often made that 10,000 women died each year from illegal abortions was entirely fabricated, the true number being around 250. The other effective tactic was make abortion a religious issue, rather than civil rights one.

“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,” he wrote.

Given that the United States had just come out of the civil rights movement – led by Christian clergyman – it was a considerable achievement to persuade America that unlimited abortion should be allowed in part because Catholic doctrine was against it.

In 1985 Nathanson produced the film The Silent Scream, an ultrasound image of an actual abortion. Bringing the reality of abortion to the light caused an enormous controversy, as proponents of the abortion licence had to confront what a child being destroyed in the womb looked like. For the pro-life movement it was a major milestone, as it brought new energy to the cause when many were eager to claim that abortion was a settled issue.

It remains the most unsettling of all issues, and Nathanson was deeply unsettled about his role in the 1.5 million annual abortions in the United States. His public policy conversion was but a first step and while remarkable, not unprecedented. On abortion and other issues, changes of position do take place. Yet more difficult was confronting the mystery of evil in his own life.

“Abortion is now a monster so unimaginably gargantuan that even to think of stuffing it back into its cage … is ludicrous beyond words,” he wrote. “Yet that is our charge — a herculean endeavour. I am one of those who helped usher in this barbaric age.”