Letter #167, 2021, Wed, Dec 8: The Nathanson Files, Tape #2

Above left, the late Dr. Bernard Nathanson (1926-2011) meets US President Ronald Reagan; center, Dr. Nathanson and St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta; right, Dr. Nathanson meets Pope John Paul II

    Here is the transcript of the first tape from The Nathanson Files:

    Tape #2 The Nathanson Files: Intentional Deception

    This is part two, in which Terry Beatley describes how, through propaganda, Dr. Nathanson and NARAL (the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws) deceived the American public into legalizing abortion.

    Robert Moynihan: So, Terry, Dr. Nathanson told you that he felt regretful for a strategy that he felt was a deception. He told you that.

    Well, what was this strategy?

    How did he feel he had deceived the American people about abortion?

    Terry Beatley: It was an intentional deception.

    It was not an accident.

    It was very methodical.

    It was effective.

    It has been deadly, 63 million babies have lost their lives.

    It was an eight-point strategy.

    So, the first thing they did was they hired a public relations firm.

    And when I say “they” it’s NARAL.

    Moynihan: What is, precisely, NARAL?

    Beatley: Well, it is an acronym, N-A-R-A-L, for the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws.

    So this was a pro-abortion, political action organization.

    The first formed back in the late 1960s between Dr. Nathanson and Lawrence Ladder.

    Those were the two men in New York who partnered up.

    And they had one goal in mind, to get abortion legalized in all 50 states.

    So, this is pre-Roe v. Wade. Okay.

    And, Lawrence Ladder, being the savvy marketer that he was, recognized that the pro-abortion movement was very fractured.

    You had some people who wanted abortion all nine months of pregnancy.

    And others for a shorter term.

    So, it was very fractured.

    There was no leader.

    So, he recognized this as a huge marketing opportunity.

    Moynihan: Well, what was the mechanism of the deception?

    What was the root of the deception?

    Beatley: Yeah. The root.

    Well, they knew that they had to deceive the American public into accepting this idea of decriminalizing or legalizing abortion.

    And the only way to do that was through propaganda.

    I always think of John 10:10, Jesus himself said, “Satan comes to kill, deceive, and destroy.”

    And that’s exactly what NARAL did with eight points of propaganda.

    So they hired a public relations firm who advised them that we have to frame the debate about abortion around something that Americans love.

    And what Americans love is choice.

    Choice.

    We love choice.

    Moynihan: Yes, we do.

    Beatley: You know. We talked about it yesterday.

    You know, when you go to the grocery store, and look at all the different choices of just orange juice.

    We love choices.

    That’s a positive word, right.

    So they framed the debate around choice.

    And then, the next thing they did was they developed the cynical slogans.

    We’ve heard these for so many years, we don’t even realize it.

    Somebody actually sat down and developed these, devised these, “My body, my choice,” “Every baby, a wanted baby.”

    And the list goes on.

    And that’s two out of eight of the propaganda strategy.

    Moynihan: So, the effort was to avoid anything negative, to avoid referring to the fact that there was a human being, a baby, that was growing in the womb.

    And to leave that feeling off to one side, that judgment off to one side. To distort the argument.

    And this is what Dr. Nathanson later regretted?

    Beatley: Absolutely. Well, and then all the lies. The other propaganda, I mean, point number three…

    He obviously was OBGYN and a medical doctor and most of the reporters covering this issue were young female reporters.

    He recognized very quickly that he could use the complicit media.

    He could tell these reporters almost anything and they would accept it as truth.

    They wouldn’t go do their research.

    So he used the media, that’s point number three.

    But what would he tell them?

    He would tell them lies, these fabricated facts.

    He would tell the media that 1 million women a year were having illegal abortions in America, and 5,000 to 10,000 women a year were dying due to complications of illegal abortions.

    All those numbers were lies.

    Moynihan: And he told you that he had made up those lies? 

    Beatley: Oh, he told me, plus he has also written about it.     So, he has left it in writing.

    Moynihan: And what were the actual facts?

    Beatley: Yeah, the real numbers, according to Dr. Nathanson, there were never a million women a year having back-alley abortions.

    The real number was around 98,000.

    And there were never 5,000 to 10,000 women a year dying due to complications.

    The real number, on the high side, was 200 to 250.

    There are other years, it was in the single digits or in the twenties, but never 5,000 to 10,000 women dying a year.

    Moynihan: Okay, what you are describing is an effort to frame the debate in solely positive terms of choice.

    Beatley: That’s right.

    Moynihan: Without bringing in any negative aspects and to exaggerate the negative effects on women of the lack of legalized abortion.

    Beatley: That’s right.

    Moynihan: So what else did he say? What were the other things that were distorted?

    Beatley: What the PR firm recommended that, “If you are going to start this revolution, you need to be able to quote statistics.”

    And they said it better be a statistic over 50%.

    So, when I sat with Dr. Nathanson, I asked him, “Where did you get the 60% statistic that 60% of Americans want abortion on demand legalized?”

    He clenched his fist. Well, he raised his hand in the air, and he clenched his fist and he pulled it down and he said, “Terry, I pulled the number out of thin air. I just knew I had to be able to quote a statistic over 50%.”

    So, and before I forget this, I think, to back up the relevance of these lies and how they are still propagated today. They are repeated today.

    During the Judge Cavanaugh Supreme Court hearing, Senator Dianne Feinstein, she not only repeated the lies, but she got the lies mixed up.

    So what she said to Judge Cavanaugh is, “Oh, we can’t go back to yesteryear when a million women a year were dying.”

    I was listening to it.

    And, of course, I’m screaming at my TV because I’m thinking, “You know what, if you’re going to quote the lies, get the lies right.”

    So, they never said, “a million women a year were dying.”

    They were saying, “5,000 to 10,000 women a year.”

    Bottom line, it was all lies.

    The other thing they would do, though, is they would repeat the lies over and over and over.

    So, this notion of fake news is absolutely true.

    You repeat it long enough and it sounds like the truth.

    (to be continued)