After Tiller: two ex-abortion doctors speak out
credit: Salon
After Dr. George Tiller’s murder on Pentecost Sunday, much has been written about late-term abortion. Among the many comments are two you might not have run across, both from former abortion doctors, Bernard Nathanson and Mary L. Davenport.
Bernard Nathanson has previously been interviewed by Julia Duin, religion writer for the Washington Times, so in the wake of Dr. Tiller’s murder, she decided to re-interview Dr. Nathanson, a former abortionist who was at the heart of the pro-choice movement in the sixties and seventies:
Soon after late-term abortion doctor George Tiller was killed, I called one of his mentors, Bernard Nathanson. The former Jewish atheist who presided over 75,000 abortions - including that of his own child - in the 1960s and 1970s left the abortion industry upon the advent of ultrasound technology.
His now-classic video “The Silent Scream” shows an unborn child recoiling from a vacuum abortion device before being sucked to its death. He was baptized a Roman Catholic in late 1996, and in an interview with me then, he said he converted because he feared going to hell.
“I have such heavy moral baggage to drag into the next world,” he explained…..
“I knew George Tiller years ago when I was on the pro-abortion side. He came to a course I was giving in the technique of abortion in New York in 1970 under the auspices of NARAL. And I did late-term abortions until I changed my opinion as of 1980.
“My switch to pro-life had nothing to do with religion,” he added. “Tiller was a church-going man, which doesn’t say a whole lot in this country, but one wonders why he never changed his mind based on the scientific evidence. That is where I changed my mind, based on fetoscopies and ultrasound studies.
“Once we had ultrasound in place, we could study the fetus and see it was a member of our community. If you don’t do that, you’re just a creature of political ideology. In 1970, there were approximately 1,100 articles on the functioning of the fetus. By 1990, there were 22,000. The data piled up swiftly and opened a window into the womb…..”
Mary L. Davenport is not so familiar a name, though she is now the president elect of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
A few days ago Dr. Davenport published on the Family Research Council’s website a discourse titled Late-Term Abortions are Never Necessary.
Among her comments:
Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, shocked the general public in 1997 when he admitted that the vast majority of partial-birth abortions were performed on healthy mothers and babies.5 Contrary to the assertion of abortion rights supporters that late-term abortion is performed for serious reasons, surveys of late abortion patients confirm that the vast majority occur because of delay in diagnosis of pregnancy.6 They are done for similar reasons as early abortions: relationship problems, young or old maternal age, education or financial concerns…..7
Peggy Jarman of the Pro-Choice Action League stated that about three-fourths of Tiller’s late-term patients were teenagers who denied to themselves or their families that they were pregnant until that fact could no longer be obscured…..8
Intentional abortion for maternal health, particularly after viability, is one of the great deceptions used to justify all abortion…..
An unfortunate reality is that the legal burden for the physician is severe if all possible risks of continuing the pregnancy are not communicated to the patient. In the U.S., multi-million dollar court judgments for “wrongful life” are allowed if the patients assert that they would have had an abortion had they known a particular problem might have ensued. It is impossible to foresee and enumerate each and every possible complication. But if abortion is recommended, even with minimal or no justification, there is no legal penalty…..
Fetal problems are the other serious rationale for considering abortion, and diagnosis of these abnormalities has multiplied with the increased use of ultrasound in pregnancy. Ultrasound studies of fetal anatomy are often done at 18-20 weeks, so abortions done as a result of these scans are late abortions. But ultrasound is imperfect and analysis of the images can result in inaccurate interpretations…..
For fatal birth defects, abortion is sometimes presented as the only option. But a better alternative is perinatal hospice. This involves continuing the pregnancy until labor begins and giving birth normally, in a setting of comfort and support until natural death occurs…..
Many couples who have had abortions for birth defects suffer from adverse long-term psychological effects and prolonged grief reactions.14 Children who learn that their mothers aborted their siblings can suffer feelings of worthlessness, guilt, distrust and rage.15
There are couples who are willing to adopt children with Down syndrome or other birth defects, but genetic counselors frequently do not give patients this information…..
Although parents choosing abortion may allege that the disabled child is better off not existing, disabled adults would contest that assertion. When surveyed in numerous studies, no differences have been found between disabled and “able-bodied” people as to their satisfaction with life…..
Perhaps the most important piece of information offered by Dr. Davenport is found in her footnote #12:
A directory of pro-life maternal-fetal medicine specialists can be found on-line. Go to: <www.prolifemfm.org>. These superbly qualified physicians are eager to help women who have been advised to undergo an abortion for medical reasons or fetal birth defects.
One of our Women for Faith & Family founders has two M.D. sons, both of whom are maternal-fetal specialists.
Some of the rest of us at W.F.F. have carried through pregnancies in which our children suffered from fatal birth defects. One of us regularly writes and speaks about Karen, a Down Syndrome daughter who died at 5 months.
No regrets.
As William Blake has written, “Joy and woe are woven fine.”
Sherry Tyree, 66, a graduate of John Burroughs School and Washington University, is a founding member (1984) and Vice President of Women for Faith & Family, a national Catholic women's organization that supports and defends traditional church teachings. Sherry is married to Dr. Donald A. Tyree, professor emeritus, School of Business, St. Louis University. 
Tim,
One last thing concerning self-centerness, and selfishness. I have seen these ungodly motivations behind the actions of many who give birth to children to raise and by many who adopt also. All things in life can and usually do become perverted when God is not at the center of all your decisions and your very existence, it is not just a motivation of those who choose to have abortions.
mother of two,
Where did anyone state that God advocated the killing of babies? The truth was stated that NO BABY THAT IS ABORTED IS ETERNALLY SEPARATED FROM GOD.
What part of that Scriptural truth gets under your skin and disgust you? Please share that with us, will you because your misplaced disgust does not move me.
Interesting how people are trying to assign me labels and motives. I am in the greatest life-preserving field of all, science. And probably many people here do not value, and perhaps even vilify science. According to the CDC, Since 1900, infant mortality has decreased 90%, and maternal mortality has decreased 99%. Religion has never done this. Granted, science has some less laudable achievements as well, but clearly from the global population we can see that science is saving life more than it is destroying it. Why so many people here choose to focus on one tiny aspect of the life/death equilibrium is beyond me. What about the fact that the US is much higher than a number of countries in its child death rate? http://www.mindfully.org/Health/2007/US-Death-Rate1may07.htm
I refuse to become hysterical about abortion, which is probably mostly undesirable, but will continue to happen even if illegal, as it did in the past, and will continue to be sometimes necessary. There are so many other quality of life issues that require addressing in this country that to me, it seems hypocritical to focus such pious attentions on the unborn.
The most important thing that someone who has had an abortion needs to know:
God loves you…..more than you will ever know. He wants you back, for all eternity. Turn to God, He doesn’t want to lose you. His motives are pure (not like many of us). Read the New Testament…… wall to wall forgivness and mercy.
abc, aren’t you glad the Founding Fathers decided to fight for everyone, regardless of what they did and did not consider “pious”? If only you had the foresight that those great men did, eh?
I am a science guy too by the way. No one has yet to disprove my definition of life as beginning at conception. Why don’t you step off your high horse and give it a whirl? In the mean time, think about this. Just because abortions will still happen doesn’t make them right. Rapes still happen, so should we just stop prosecuting the perps since it will undoubtedly happen again? For a “science” guy you sure use lousy logic.
There are lots of issues that need attention in this country and in this world. That doesn’t make this one unimportant any more than it makes any of the others umimportant. It just means there is plenty of hard work to do. Let’s hope most people don’t take the salad bar route you have and pick and choose a couple of issues and ignore the rest…
O, by the way, we had a discussion about the childbirth deathrate in another blog recently. Did you know many countries don’t count low-chance preemies as a live birth, but the U.S. does? Kinda affects our percentages. But then, as a “science” guy, I’m sure you already bothered to look at how the stats are compiled and realized that there are quite a few unreconciable differences in the data sets that make accurate comparisons impossible…right?
Tim,
Aren’t you at least curious why your way, (the way of you “Pro-Lifers”) isn’t reaping any spiritual results?
People such as yourself just want to go about things YOUR WAY and the heck with how Scripture instruct you to do things. To compare abortion to rape is so spiritual wrong. Rape is always commented by a evil person who is a real physical threat to the very society (all women/men and children) that that person resides in. To compare abortion to rape only show how little common sense and most obvious spiritual immaturity of an individual.
D. Walker,
Of course human life begins at conception.
You are a Christian, are you not?
Then you must know that the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he assumed a human nature and became man (albeit remaining a Divine Person, not a human person) in the womb of the Most Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary, began the life of His humanity at the moment of His conception with Our Lady’s cooperation with her saying: “fiat mihi” (in short, “I do”)
This is basic Christian doctrine and belief.
Or do you hold that Our Lord started his humananity at a time much previous to when every other member His created humanity begins?
Lee,
You have not at all comprehended what I have been saying and I can only imagine that you cannot hear what one is saying unless they think the same as you do otherwise you would see that the fact that human life begin at conception change nothing about what I have stated here.
It goes without saying that human life begins at the moment of conception. But, it is not yet a born human being. Human life has merely been begotten.
D. Walker,
“By the way, there is Scripture that supports the belief that the spirit is not received until the first breath outside the mother’s womb. My point here is not to argue here about which of these views are correct because the truth is that you can’t nor anyone else can possibly know this 100% for certain, but I believe through my spirit and my reading of Scripture that this is the case.”
That’s your quote.
Lee,
And? What is your point, you forgot that little detail.
What I stated, I meant. Wouldn’t that mean that I still believed that Life BEGIN at such a time (conception)? It certainly does, doesn’t it? It doesn’t however mean that I stated human life is complete at the point of conception does it, I did not say that, did I.
The comment you copied above of mine was concerning the belief by some concerning when the SPIRIT of the human being is recieved and I do not believe that that takes place unto life is completed and born into this world where it is needed in order to have conscienceness of right and wrong.
Furthermore, what do these little details have to do with what I have stated overall concerning LIFE, DEATH, ABORTIONS or going out into the world telling people about the Kingdom to come and saving lost souls?