Bernard Nathanson, American pro-choice activist and co-founder of NARAL, later pro-life activist and writer, died from cancer he was , 84.

Bernard N. Nathanson was an American medical doctor from New York who helped to found the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, but who later became a pro-life activist died from cancer he was , 84..

(July 31, 1926 – February 21, 2011)

Early life and education

Nathanson was born in New York City. His father was an obstetrician/gynecologist,^[1] the same career that Nathanson held in his professional life. Nathanson graduated in 1949 from McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal.^[2]
Nathanson stated that suicide "[ran] in [his] family": his paternal grandfather committed suicide when Nathanson's father was a child, his sister committed suicide at the age of 49,^[3] and his father attempted suicide at least once.^[4]

Career

He was licensed to practice in New York state since 1952^[2] and became board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology in 1960.^{[1][not in citation given]} He was for a time the director of the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health (CRASH), then the largest freestanding abortion facility in the world. Nathanson has written that he was responsible for more than 75,000 abortions throughout his career as an abortion provider. CRASH was forced to close in 1988 after the death of a patient during an abortion.^{[citation needed]} Nathanson states that he performed an abortion on a woman whom he had impregnated.^[5]
He served as an expert witness in several medical malpractice cases. Although he served as an expert on behalf of both defendants and plaintiffs, the vast majority of Nathanson's in court efforts were on behalf of the plaintiffs.

Activism

Pro-choice

Originally a pro-choice activist, Nathanson gained national attention by then becoming one of the founding members of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (later renamed the National Abortion Rights Action League, and now known as NARAL Pro-Choice America). He worked with Betty Friedan and others for the legalization of abortion in the United States. Their efforts essentially succeeded with the Roe v Wade decision.

Pro-life

With the development of ultrasound in the 1970s, he had the chance to observe a real-time abortion. This led him to reconsider his views on abortion.^[6] He is often quoted as saying abortion is "the most atrocious holocaust in the history of the United States". He wrote the book Aborting America where he first exposed what he called "the dishonest beginnings of the abortion movement". In 1984, he directed and narrated a film titled The Silent Scream, in cooperation with the National Right to Life Committee, regarding abortion. His second documentary Eclipse of Reason dealt with late-term abortions. He stated that the numbers he once cited for NARAL concerning the number of deaths linked to illegal abortions were "false figures".^[7][8]
Referring to his previous work as an abortion provider and abortion rights activist, he wrote in his 1996 autobiography Hand of God, "I am one of those who helped usher in this barbaric age."^[6]
Nathanson developed what he called the "vector theory of life", which states that from the moment of conception, there exists "a self-directed force of life that, if not interrupted, will lead to the birth of a human baby."^[6]

Religious conversion

Nathanson grew up Jewish and for more than ten years after he became pro-life he described himself as a "Jewish atheist". In 1996 he converted to Roman Catholicism through the efforts of an Opus Dei priest, Rev. C. John McCloskey. In December 1996, Nathanson was baptized by Cardinal John O'Connor in a private Mass with a group of friends in New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He also received Confirmation and first Communion from the cardinal. He cited that "no religion matches the special role for forgiveness that is afforded by the Catholic Church" when asked why he converted to Roman Catholicism.^[9]

Personal life and death

Nathanson married four times; his first three marriages ended in divorce.^[10] He died of cancer in New York on February 21, 2011 at the age of 84. He was survived by his fourth wife, Christine, and a son, Joseph, from a previous union, who resides in New Jersey.^[10]

Works

• Aborting America, 1979, Doubleday & Company, Inc.: Garden City. ISBN 0-385-14461-X
• The Silent Scream (1984 documentary)
• The Abortion Papers: Inside the Abortion Mentality, 1984, with Adele Nathanson, Hawkes Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0-811-90685-X
• Eclipse of Reason, (1987 documentary)
• The Hand of God: A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind,, 1996, Regnery Publishing, Inc.: Washington D.C. ISBN 0-89526-463-3

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