Posted on 05/03/2003 5:02:46 PM PDT by cpforlife.org
I am personally responsible for 75,000 abortions.
This legitimises my credentials to speak to you with some authority on the issue. I was one of the founders of the National Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Laws (NARAL) in the U.S. in 1968. A truthful poll of opinion then would have found that most Americans were against permissive abortion. Yet within five 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
We persuaded the media that the cause of permissive abortion was a liberal enlightened, sophisticated one. Knowing that if a true poll were taken, we would be soundly defeated, we simply fabricated the results of fictional polls. We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60% of Americans were in favour of permissive abortion. This is the tactic of the serf-fulfilling lie. Few people care to be in the minority. We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000 but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1,000,000. Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000. These false figures took root in the consciousness of Americans convincing many that we needed to crack the abortion law. Another myth we fed to the public through the media was that legalising abortion would only mean that the abortions taking place illegally would then be done legally. In fact, of course, abortion is now being used as a primary method of birth control in the U.S. and the annual number of abortions has increased by 1500% since legalisation.
THE SECOND KEY TACTIC WAS TO PLAY THE CATHOLIC CARD
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. We fed the media such lies as "we all know that opposition to abortion comes from the hierarchy and not from most Catholics" and "Polls prove time and again that most Catholics want abortion law reform". And the media drum-fired all this into the American people, persuading them that anyone opposing permissive abortion must be under the influence of the Catholic hierarchy and that Catholics in favour of abortion are enlightened and forward-looking. An inference of this tactic was that there were no non- Catholic groups opposing abortion. The fact that other Christian as well as non-Christian religions were {and still are) monolithically opposed to abortion was constantly suppressed, along with pro-life atheists' opinions.
THE THIRD KEY TACTIC WAS THE DENIGRATION AND SUPPRESSION OF ALL SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE THAT LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION
I am often asked what made me change my mind. How did I change from prominent abortionist to pro-life advocate? In 1973, I became director of obstetrics of a large hospital in New York City and had to set up a prenatal research unit, just at the start of a great new technology which we now use every day to study the foetus in the womb. 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. Foetology makes it undeniably evident that life begins at conception and requires all the protection and safeguards that any of us enjoy. Why, you may well ask, do some American doctors who are privy to the findings of foetology, discredit themselves by carrying out abortions? Simple arithmetic at $300 a time, 1.55 million abortions means an industry generating $500,000,000 annually, of which most goes into the pocket of the physician doing the abortion. It is clear that permissive abortion is 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.
AS A SCIENTIST 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 has since converted to Catholicism, being baptised in 1996.]
I don't absolutely insist on a narrow definition. Call a fetus a baby and I won't raise an eyebrow. The problem is that a lot of pro-lifers seem to think that "fetus" is somehow a pro-abort weasel word.
I prefer precision. You wouldn't call a teenager an infant would you?
"Doctor" Nathanson should do the honorable thing, and eat a bullet.
It does not serve the cause of righteousness, for us to *not allow* the bad guys to change sides. Dr. Nathanson has (a) seen the light, (b) STOPPED, and (c) is working to undo the damage he did. Surely this does more good than telling him to kill himself. Give him some credit.
News flash... the Church HAS been caught sleeping again... with altarboys. With the abortion war virtually lost, homosexuality is now the main point of cultural attack, and that this time the Church has been infiltrated from WITHIN, nullifying its power. Unfortunately, it will probably be generations (if ever) before the Catholic church is ever taken seriously on moral issues. What a devilishly clever way of silencing the most consistent moral voice.
Please don't interpret this as Catholic bashing. I am deeply saddended by the effective neutralization of the Catholic church as a voice of moral authority. Besides, the problem affects all sects. One of my former Protestant churches was also infiltrated by a homopedophile youth minister.
Protestants and Catholics alike need to start following the Biblical command to cast out unrepentant sinners from their fellowships. "If a brother be called a fornicator.... with such a one not to eat." Only when our ranks are pure, will we have the power to bring down the abortion and homosexual abominations (and whatever is coming next.)
Can we start by refusing communion to pro-abortion politicians?
I'm afraid I have to disagree with you on this one. After bragging about the murder of tens of thousands of innocent people, the only way Nathanson can wash the blood off his hands is with his own blood.
And his sponsor was the Baptist Chuck Colson.
Sir or madam, What you say has a definite logic to it, but it's lacking. Nathanson's own blood could never cover over his murders. Only the blood of Jesus Christ, the sinless Lamb of God, can do that.
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