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The Hand of God: A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind

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Many people, mostly pro-life advocates, see the abortion issue as the modern equivalent of the fight to put an end to slavery. Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, a founder of NARAL and once one of America's premier abortion providers until he saw the light and changed sides, draws parallels between pre-Civil War America, specifically the Dred Scott decision, and Roe v. Wade in "The Hand of God: A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind." Those are heady claims indeed. To argue that abortion could bring the country to civil war seems a bit melodramatic. Certainly the other side, the pro-abortion advocates, don't see the issue this way. To them Roe v. Wade and subsequent court rulings expanding the ability of a woman to terminate her pregnancy is a right, pure and simple. It's a right that grows out of the Supreme Court's recognition of an inherent privacy right guaranteed by many of the amendments contained in the Bill of Rights. Any effort to curtail or roll back abortion, they argue, would not only allow the government to exercise control over a woman's body, it would also strike at the heart of the gender equality feminists have worked so hard to achieve over the past four decades.

Don't expect Bernard Nathanson to resolve the issue in this slim book. This is no "Uncle Tom's Cabin" for the pro-life crowd. It's close, though. "The Hand of God" tells the story of how a lowly physician came to embrace abortion, how he began to question what he did for a living, and how he found God when he embraced the pro-life movement. According to the author, his early life played a big role in his later decision to become an abortionist. His father, a Jewish physician with misanthropic tendencies, dominated most aspects of his son's life until his death at the age of ninety-four. An imposing presence with a keen intellect and a hardscrabble background, Nathanson's father passed on to his son a suspicion of the Jewish religion and a distrust of women. For example, he encouraged his son to disrespect his mother. The father also dominated Bernard's sister, interfering in her marriage and all other aspects of her life until she committed suicide in her forties. It's obvious we're not dealing with a kindly soul here, yet Nathanson's father did do a few things to help his son. He secured him a place in medical school, for instance, and passed on a love of learning that, if this book is any indication, served Bernard Nathanson well.

Unfortunately, the Hippocratic Oath Nathanson took after completing medical school didn't quite make the desired impression. His specialization in obstetrics and gynecology coupled with the tumult of the 1960s soon brought the good doctor into contact with several physicians interested in overturning the nation's abortion laws. The author plunged in with both feet, and soon found himself overseeing a clinic in New York that performed tens of thousands of abortions. Before his conversion to the pro-life movement, Nathanson went through a couple of marriages and even personally performed an abortion on a woman pregnant with his own child. The last several chapters of the book move beyond the personal into philosophical and medical discussions on life, death, and the ethics of the abortion debate. Nathanson convincingly argues that new medical techniques prove that life begins much earlier than previously believed. He also contends that abortion is a gateway that could, if it continues to be the law of the land, lead to legalized euthanasia and the establishment of third world "fetus farms" that would supply stem cells and organs for those suffering from various diseases in this country. "The Hand of God" paints a pretty bleak picture of the abortion scene.

By far the most effect part of "The Hand of God" deals with Nathanson's discussions of the types of medical doctors that inhabit abortion clinics. Think alcoholics, drug users, quacks, and bottom of the class physicians. It's ugly beyond belief. He provides a few names and cases concerning doctors who had their licenses yanked for maiming and/or killing patients while performing abortions. One surgeon actually quit performing the procedure at the halfway point and sent the woman home because her husband didn't have enough money to pay for the operation. She later died. We tend to think of these things happening in the bad old days before Roe v. Wade turned the back alley butcher into a white coat wearing surgeon in a licensed clinic, but Nathanson's carefully documented accounts show the fallacy of that sort of thinking. Abortion clinics still draw the bottom feeders because of the morals involved. Most doctors don't want anything to do with terminating pregnancies unless the mother's life is in imminent danger. Perhaps most physicians still take the Hippocratic Oath seriously. Whatever the case, ethics still play a big role in who will or will not perform abortions in the nation's clinics.

I decided to read Nathanson's book after reading about his conversion to Roman Catholicism in Dave Shiflett's "Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity." I'm glad I did. I've never been a knee jerk pro-lifer despite being a strident conservative, but this book has moved me further in that direction. There is something seriously wrong with a culture that endorses abortion as a means of birth control, and there is definitely something amiss about allowing a minor to terminate a pregnancy without parental consent. I won't even get into the immorality of partial-birth abortion; I was against that procedure long before I read this book. I heartily recommend "The Hand of God." Prepare yourself, however. You might just find yourself agreeing with the good doctor by the time you turn the final page.

Imagine you are an abortionist, responsible for the deaths of hundreds, or even thousands, of human beings. How will you tell your story to others?

Perhaps, in an effort to ease your burning conscience, you will write a rambling, disjointed rationalization of your own behavior. Perhaps you will denounce those who disagree with you, resorting to ad hominem attacks.

Or perhaps you will write the kind of book Bernard Nathanson did. Perhaps you will undertake a serious examination of conscience, admit your grievous errors, and dedicate the rest of your life to saving the lives of those whom you have placed in danger.

Nathanson has seen abortion from the inside. He led the crusade to make it legal and pervasive. He performed abortions himself and taught others how to do them. He knows firsthand how this gruesome procedure affects the mother, the doctor, and most importantly, the baby. His credibility and standing on this issue are unparalleled.

I cannot recall reading another book, apart from St. Augustine's Confessions, in which the author has so thoroughly cataloged his own failings and his efforts to ameliorate their effects. This type of candid reflection is painful for the author, but enormously valuable and instructive for the rest of us.

I highly recommend this book, both for its analysis of abortion and its illuminating honesty.

That's what Dr. Bernard Nathanson does with this book, and that is why I sing its praises and his.

Here is a man who was responsible for the legalization of abortion in the United States, coming to terms with the dreadful consequences of his actions, publicly sharing an obviously painful part of his life, and seeking forgiveness.

This is a beautiful testimony, even if it is difficult to read at times. Nathanson leads us through his life in a Jewish home and the events which led to his work as an abortionist and with NARAL.

His vocabulary can be a bit challenging at times, but it is very much worth the effort.

Especially chilling are Nathanson's predictions for the future. He predicts that just as we now have abortuaries one day we will have "death with dignity centers" - legalized places where we can bring our elderly to have them put to death.

The book brings the reader right up to his potential conversion to Catholicism. Not long after the book was published, Dr. Nathanson entered the Catholic Church.

Dr. Bernard Nathanson was a leader in the movement to make abortion "legal, affordable, and available on demand" for American women, even before the 1972 Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. He performed abortions, directed a large abortion clinic in New York City, and was one of the three co-founders of the organization that became the National Abortion Rights Action League.

Doubts about abortion, however, were finally confirmed when ultrasound technology allowed him to to view the development of the child in the womb. He stopped performing abortions at the end of the 70's, made a video -- "The Silent Scream" -- in 1985, and joined the pro-life movement. "I know the abortion issue as perhaps no one else does," Dr. Nathanson writes. His expertise and prominence make this an informative, compelling book.

Readers will find much more than autobiography in its pages. The author's recollection of his physician father makes fascinating reading by itself. Dr. Nathanson's description of an abortion in lay terms is valuable and revealing. A gruesome chapter on abortion malpractice and his discussion of RU-486 are must reading for all who deliberate public policy. Historians, who focus on causation, will be intrigued by Dr. Nathanson's rendering of the social changes in the 1960's. There are important essays on the Hippocratic oath, fetal tissue research, and the prospect of physician-assisted suicide.

Shortly after this book was published, Dr. Nathanson's journey across the medical, political, and spiritual chasm caused by abortion led him to Catholicism. "The Hand of God" finally stands with the great confessional works. He writes, "The usual and customary progression is: Belief in God and His splendid gift of life leads the believer to defend it -- and become pro-life. With me, it was just the opposite: Perversely, I journeyed from being pro-life to belief in God."

Dr. Bernard Nathanson no doubt speaks the truth when he claims to know the abortion issue "as perhaps no one else does." Nathanson oversaw or participated in over 60,000 abortions during his medical career, including the abortion which took the life of his own child. Thus it is especially admirable that he, unlike many others who have been involved personally with abortion, had the ability to admit to himself what we all at some level know to be true (and what is becoming harder and harder to deny with the advancement of science and medical technology)--that abortion is indeed the taking of a human life.

But admit this he does, after a personal encounter with sonographic visual images of an abortion carried out by a colleague. If anything, Nathanson's story is a testimony to the power such images have to catalyze a reevaluation of people's views on abortion. It is unfortunate that many in the pro-life movement now shy away from using graphich visual aids in presenting their case. Certainly graphic images have been missused by pro-lifers in the past, but that does not mean that they don't have a vital and proper role to play in persuading the public that abortion is a violent act against a defenseless fellow human being.

I would think anyone with an interest in the abortion debate would want to read this book. Nathanson played a critical role in the legalizing of abortion in the US (he was the co-founder of NARAL) and gives a behind the scenes look at the abortion rights movement in its infancy.

The only drawbacks I have concern the writing style and organization. Nathanson uses far too many arcane and difficult words in a book written for the general public and some parts of the book are repetitive. A couple of paragraphs are almost word for word identical. Also, many many key details connecting important parts of Nathanson's life are skipped over which can be confusing and annoying. At one point Nathanson briefly mentions that he has a son but one is never told when, where, or from whom the son was born.

Overall I think this was a good book. Nathanson's account of his conversion from being pro-abortion to pro-life and then from an atheist to a Roman Catholic is certainly fascinating. Perhaps it could've been told better, but the story itself makes up for any shortcomings.

To say that Dr. Bernard Nathanson has undergone a change of heart from his original position on the abortion issue would be one of the great understatements of our time. From his role as a 'Founding Father' in the pro-abortion movement of the late 1960's and early-70's, Nathanson fairly quickly realized the grave error that he and the entire movement had made, and has fought now for decades on behalf of the children being disgarded daily by this legalized immorality. His story, told here in autobiographical form, is one that shows there is yet hope for anyone who may have been, or may still be, similarly misguided.

Nathanson's credentials to speak publicly on this issue are probably more valid than any other person in the country. He was the co-founder of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws back in 1969, the pre-cursor to the National Abortion Rights Action League, in which role he led the charge to legalize abortions in the United States. He was the former director of the largest abortion clinic in the world, the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health in New York. In this role, Nathanson presided over 60,000+ abortions, including that of his own child!

(READ the rest of this review, as well as other book reviews, at the 'Blog' link from the website www.mattveasey.com)

Dr. Nathanson's story is the main reason for this book: he wasan abortionist who saw the light, became pro-life, and ended up converting to Catholicism. And of course, that story alone would make this book well worth reading. But as it happens, Dr. Nathanson also turns out to be an extremely gifted writer. I can't stress that enough: Dr. Nathanson tells his story with such intelligence, depth of feeling, and humor that he has become one of my favorite authors of all time. "I laughed, I cried..." I really did!

Catholic readers will immediately observe that Dr. Nathanson never trashes his Jewish roots, as ex-Catholics are wont to do, and will admire and respect him so much more for that. In "A Perfunctory Jew" Nathanson writes: "I do not believe that this ethical vacuum was a result of the hospital's Jewishness...Rather, the moral tenor of the place was lowered, as in the case of many Jewish institutions today, as in the house in which I was raised, by its lack of Judaism." Many Catholics will recognize the faint but unmistakable echo of their own voices in these words, and in many of the childhood experiences Dr. Nathanson so skillfully relates.

I'll leave it to the other reviewers to describe the story itself, which is of course the main point of this book. Or is it? Perhaps the main point of this book is that it is brilliantly written, by an author whose immense talent is truly a gift from God and a tremendous asset to the Catholic community. The conversion of someone so gifted cannot help but validate and strengthen our faith.

Although on reflection it seems inappropriate to "thank" someone for coverting, or to "welcome" him to one's Church - that is, after all, God's job - I can't seem to fight the overwhelming urge to say to Dr. Nathanson: Thank you...and a thousand welcomes to you!

Bernard Nathanson is one of the pioneers of the abortion culture that started in 1973. As a doctor, and an activist, he was on the front lines of the work that became the basis for the "pro-choice" marketing campaign.

The book starts with his personal background. The first few chapters are a bit dry although his background does give some insights into his later work. He describes his early work in medical school when he was introduced to the Hippocratic Oath which prohibited abortions (Page 48).

However, he became involved in providing abortions before they were legal (Chapter 9), and enjoyed the earnings potential. Looking back he states that "I am struck by the uncritical nature of the task we set for ourselves, by the moral and spiritual vacuum at the core of the operation...And yet the thing was so obviously sordid. Why couldn't we make the link between the ethical and the moral, the evident greed and callous motives,... between all these ethical indicators and the grotesque immorality of the act itself?" (Page 106)

While many of course may feel that abortion is morally wrong, few have presided over 60,000 like Dr. Nathanson did. What is even more shocking is that he performed an abortion on his own child. He describes how he conducted the procedure with a level of cold detachment that only impacted him much later.

Bernard has many strong opinions, and he is fully aware of the tragic mistake of his activism. In an article he wrote he states: "We must courageously face the fact - finally - that human life of a special order is being taken (in the process of abortion) and since the vast majority of pregnancies are carried successfully to term, abortion must be seen as the interruption of a process that would otherwise have produced a citizen of the world. Denial of this reality is the crassest kind of moral evasiveness" (Page 127)

Overall, this is a powerful book. While at times it is a bit dry, the insights are remarkable. If the perspective of one of the men who pioneered this practice, and did or supervised tens of thousands of these acts, is not valid, it is hard to imagine whose views would be.

C. S. Lewis once wrote, "For many healthy extroverts, self-examination first begins with conversion. For me it was the other way around. . . I had been 'taken out of myself.'" While it would be innaccurate to call Dr. Nathanson a "healthy extrovert" before he became a Christian, this is the story of an abrasive and self-centered man who, coming into the presence of God, became more aware of what was within. He is almost painfully honest in telling what he found and why it troubled, and continues to trouble, him. The book's confessionary ending reminds the reader that the spiritual journey, like a human partnership, only begins when one steps up to the altar. Perhaps the opposite delusion, our demand for instant gratification, pay-off without investment, is one fault behind American acceptance of cheap grace, fast food, divorce, and abortion alike.

While the Hand of God is first of all a contemporary spiritual pilgrimage, it is also a book that anyone who is at all open-minded about abortion should read and carefully consider. Dr. Nathanson has looked at abortion from both sides, now: he knows very well what he is talking about. So it is a pity there are so few reviews of this book here, including the kind of attacks from hostile reviewers that show a point has sunk in, or that a book has sold beyond its narrowest constituency. This is a book more people ought to read. I might add that it is well-written and full of surprising and sometimes rather contrarian observations.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

In the early 1970's, Dr. Bernard Nathanson was the leading provider of abortions, both legal and illegal, in the USA. When Roe v. Wade was issued, Nathanson was perfectly positioned to make a killing. However, he did not expand his abortion operation. Instead, he curtailed his abortion practice and eventually came over to the pro-life side. This was because Nathanson discovered that the fetus, as it matures, looks a lot like a born baby. He did not know this until he first saw the results of early ultrasounds.

This book is a work of a man who, when confronted with scientific evidence, changed his mind on abortion.