We learned recently that the great defender of unborn human life, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, has died, R.I.P.
Dr, Nathanson was at one time the director of the largest abortion clinic in the world where, during his tenure, 60,000 abortions were carried out. He himself was responsible for a further 15,000 abortions, and he was one of the founders of the ‘National Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Laws’ (NARAL) in the U.S. in 1968. He later told how the advent of the ultrasound machine in the early 1970s caused him to acknowledge the humanity of the unborn child, and to realise the horror of what he had been doing, having watched an unborn baby recoil from a vacuum abortion device before being sucked from her mother’s womb. ‘The Silent Scream’ is the title that he gave to a video recording of the incident. From that time on, Dr. Nathanson was a fearless defender of the unborn child.‘As a scientist’, Dr. Nathanson declared, ‘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 who later became a Catholic wrote that:
‘A truthful poll of opinion [in 1968] would have found that Americans were against permissive abortion. Yet, within 5 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. …‘The second key tactic was to play the Catholic card. We systematically vilified the Catholic Church and its “socially backward ideas” …‘The third key tactic was the denigration and suppression of all scientific evidence that life begins at conception. … 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. Fetology makes it undeniably evident that life begins at conception and requires all the protection and safeguards that any of us enjoy. …‘It is clear that permissive abortion is the 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.’
The Irish Labour Party have stated that if in government they will legislate to allow for abortion in Ireland, and the party leader, Eamon Gilmore, has said that he will legislate for abortion on both life and health grounds, i.e., abortion on demand.
The people of Ireland would do well to take serious note of what the late Dr. Nathanson has said with regard to the lies and manipulation used by the promoters of abortion.
