by Marc and Julie Anderson
mjanderson@theleaven.org
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — An America free of abortion.
That’s what Terry Beatley —founder of Hosea Initiative and author of “What If We’ve Been Wrong?” — hopes to see in her lifetime. It’s a vision shared by the late Dr. Bernard Nathanson.
Once referred to as America’s Abortion King, Nathanson admitted responsibility for the deaths of 75,000 through abortion, including two of his own children, until a real-time ultrasound convinced him that abortion was wrong. Eventually, he walked away from the abortion industry.
Formerly an atheist, Nathanson was baptized into the Catholic faith in 1996, and deeply regretted the part he played in legalizing abortion in America.
The Hosea Initiative is an organization dedicated to fulfilling the promise Beatley made to Nathanson — “to teach the deception underlying legalized abortion through educational workshops, conferences, curriculum and the sale of one book for every baby aborted since 1973.”
In a recent statement, Archbishop Joseph Naumann wrote that, “Hosea Initiative is doing what Blessed Paul VI decreed on the Apostolate of the Laity on Nov. 18, 1965 in Apostolicam Actuositatem. The Hosea Initiative is a great gift to assist those in the Church proclaiming the dignity of every human life. I pray God’s blessings upon Ms. Beatley and her ministry. May it be used to transform the hearts of many and save the souls of millions.”
The name for the initiative, said Beatley, comes from the Old Testament prophet.
“My people have been silent,” said Hosea, “because they had no knowledge” (Hos 4:6).
It’s precisely that lack of knowledge, Beatley said, that led to the legalization of abortion. She wants to change that by sharing the deceptive tactics used by the abortion movement, specifically the tactics used by two men.
On Dec. 1, 2009, Beatley interviewed Nathanson in his New York City home. He was 83. Ridden with cancer, Nathanson was nearing the end of his life. He was not granting many interviews at the time, but told Beatley her request for an interview “seemed so passionate that I was compelled to say ‘yes.’”
During their only interview, Beatley said she listened as Nathanson described how he and his colleague, Lawrence Lader, followed an eight-point propaganda campaign to get abortion legalized first in their home state of New York, and then the nation. Both men were co-founders of an organization known then as NARAL, short for the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (known today as NARAL Pro-Choice America).
Beatley said Nathanson openly discussed how he and Lader “normalized the radical idea of legalizing abortion” by deceiving judges, legislators, doctors and clergy,” with false polling statistics, marketing slogans and rationalizations.
In her book, Beatley writes that near the end of her time with Nathanson, she found herself asking the former abortionist whether he had anything she could do for him.
His response, she said, was simple and profound.
“Yes. Yes, I do,” he said. “Continue teaching the strategy of how I deceived America, but also deliver this special message: Tell America that the co-founder of NARAL says to ‘love one another. Abortion is not love. Stop the killing. The world needs more love.
“I’m all about love now.”
For more information about the Hosea Initiative, visit the website.
