In the 1973 landmark decision by the US Supreme Court the court ruled that a state law that banned abortions was unconstitutional. In writing his judgment, Chief Justice Harry Blackmun wrote “We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.”
At that time, Dr. Bernard Nathanson M.D. and co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League [NARAL] succeeded in influencing seven of the nine SCOTUS justices to believe that abortion was simply a “healthcare choice.” For this, he became known as the Abortion King.”
Ever since, abortion advocates have perfected their narrative to dehumanize the unborn as “a clump of tissue.” But science and medicine present compelling evidence to the contrary.
Initially Dr. Nathanson celebrated the Roe decision. Within months, he observed his second patient on a new technology – a real time ultrasound. For the first time he recognized the baby’s humanity. She was resting peacefully in her mother’s womb, sucking her thumb, yawning and wiggling her toes. The science immediately changed his mind and his heart. He could no longer justify abortion because he saw abortion for what it truly is.
Dr. Nathanson resigned from NARAL in January 1975 after failing to convince the NARAL Board of Directors that the ethics of abortion were in serious question. He wrote in his resignation letter “what if we’ve been wrong? What an incalculable injustice will have been perpetrated!”
Years after his resignation, Dr. Nathanson discovered another truth. Using ultrasound to video record what happens to the baby during an abortion. He ascertained from the video a twelve week old baby trying to move away from the suction tube and with a racing heart rate, the baby’s mouth opens with what he described as the “silent scream of a child threatened imminently with extinction.” He spent the rest of his life trying to reverse what he unleashed onto our country but he discovered that “it is hard stopping a billion dollar industry when hearts have grown calloused and so few politicians hear the silent screams”.
Woodbury Options for Women has compassion and love for women who have chosen or who have been coerced into aborting their unborn child. As the result of abortion being legal in our country for over four decades, millions may be suffering from the choices they made. If someone you know is considering abortion, please refer them to us for compassionate exploration of life-affirming options, while educating them on parenting, adoption and abortion.
Norb Tennessen, 03 . 26 . 2020
Excerpts from “America’s “Abortion King” told me something to tell you
By Terry Beatley, President, Hosea Initiative