Bernard N. Nathanson | Antiabortion doctor, 84

Bernard N. Nathanson, 84, an early abortion-rights champion who oversaw tens of thousands of the procedures before having a change of heart and becoming a prominent antiabortion activist, died Monday at his Manhattan home after a long fight with cancer, said his wife, Christine Reisner-Nathanson.

Dr. Nathanson was an obstetrician-gynecologist who in 1969 helped found the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, now called NARAL Pro-Choice America. When abortion was legalized in New York the following year, he became director of the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health, an abortion clinic.

He estimated that he oversaw 75,000 abortions in the 1960s and 1970s before turning away from abortion rights, his wife said. It was while working at the abortion clinic that he said he developed misgivings about the procedure. He said the use of ultrasound images led to his change of heart.

After joining the antiabortion movement, Dr. Nathanson lectured internationally. He was a frequent visitor to the Ronald Reagan White House and narrated the 1986 antiabortion film The Silent Scream, which graphically depicts the abortion of a 12-week-old fetus.

He also produced Eclipse of Reason, a film about a procedure opponents call partial-birth abortion, in which the fetus is partially extracted before being destroyed. He published several books, including an autobiographical account of his experiences.

His wife described him as a "real Renaissance man" and said he "had a lot of guts." "When he was an abortion doctor he was seen as a pariah by the medical community, and when he went pro-life he was scorned by the women in the proabortion movement," she said. - AP