The Silent Scream

by Bernard Nathanson

All of the material in this film is authentic.
Some of the scenes contain explicit material,
and parental guidance is advised.

AN
AMERICAN PORTRAIT FILMS
EDUCATIONAL PRESENTATION

Dr. Nathanson
Now we can discern the chilling silent scream on the face of this child, who is now facing imminent extinction.

THE
SILENT
SCREAM

BERNARD N. NATHANSON, M.D.

Dr. Nathanson
My name is Bernard N. Nathanson. I’m a physician, practicing obstetrician and gynecologist, and I think I’ve had a passing experience in matters of abortion. Now, when I was a medical student, in 1949, we had no such science as fetology. We were taught that the unborn child—the fetus—was something in the uterus, but it was really an article of faith as to whether or not it was a human being, and whether or not that human being had any unique, personal qualities.

But the whole story has changed since the 1970s. It was at that time that the science of fetology exploded in the medical community. It exploded by means of great new technologies, such as ultrasound imaging, electronic fetal heart monitoring, fetology, hysteroscopy, radio-immunochemistry, and a host of other dazzling technologies which today constitute, in fact, the corpus of the science of fetology.

Real-time ultrasound—that is, imaging of the child in motion—has been available as a clinical tool since 1976. The room for the ultrasound examination consists of a conventional examining table, as well as the ultrasound imaging device itself:—the bulky-appearing machine here. Now the pregnant woman is positioned on the table for the examination. The abdomen is suitably draped.

The head of the instrument is now placed over the uterus; this device in turn consists, basically, of a crystal—which sends out pulsing, high-frequency sound waves—and a transducer which collects the echoes of these waves. The echoes are then collated by a computer, which in turn assembles them into a recognizable image of the living unborn child. And the child can be imaged by either a linear scan, which is useful for later pregnancies, or a sector scan, which is more accurate for delineating the child in an early pregnancy, such as this one.

The image, reconstructed from the echo pattern, is capable of truly amazing resolution. And so discerning is this instrument, that the tiny valves of the heart can be studied as they snap open and shut during the contractions of the heart. Mothers and fathers, for the first time, have been afforded a view of their unborn child by this spectacular technology.

And those technologies, those apparatuses and machines which we now use everyday, have convinced us that, beyond question, the unborn child is simply another human being—another member of the human community—indistinguishable in every way from any of us.

Now, for the first time, we have the technology to see abortion from the victim’s vantage-point. Ultrasound imaging has allowed us to see this, and so, for the first time, we are going to watch a child being torn apart—dismembered—disarticulated—crushed—and destroyed by the unfeeling steel instruments of the abortionist.

What we are looking at here is a depiction of the development of this child, in its pre-natal stage of life, from virtually the very beginnings, to the end of that stage. We have here the child at four weeks, at eight weeks, at twelve weeks, at 16 weeks, at 18 weeks, 20 weeks, and at 28 weeks. As you can see, there is no revolutionary or dramatic change in the form or in the substance of this person throughout this developmental stage.

Now this little person, at twelve weeks, is a fully formed, absolutely identifiable human being. He has had brain waves for at least six weeks, his heart has been functioning for perhaps eight weeks, and all the rest of his human functions are indistinguishable from any of ours.

Now, this book is Williams Obstetrics, the sixteenth edition, written in 1980. It is a standard textbook used throughout every medical school in the United States.

Pritchard•MacDonald
Williams
Obstetrics
Sixteenth Edition

Preface of this book, published in 1980, cautions us as follows:

Happily, we have entered an era in which the fetus can be rightfully considered and treated as our second patient. … Who would have dreamed—even a few years ago—that we could serve the fetus as physician?

Traditional medical ethics and precepts command us that we must not destroy our patients; that we are pledged to preserve their lives. Now let’s see what abortion does to this, our second patient.

We have, then, the twelve-week unborn child in the uterus, the uterus being this muscle surrounding the child. When the abortionist commences the procedure, he will first place this instrument, which is known as a speculum, into the woman’s vagina, and will then open it in order to visualize the cervix, the neck of the womb here.

Having visualized the cervix, the abortionist then takes this instrument, which is known as a tenaculum, and fastens it securely through the speculum on to the cervix, in this manner, clamping shut the tenaculum and getting a firm grasp on the cervix.

The next instrument which is brought into play is called the sound. This instrument is then introduced into the uterus, and it is then removed, the abortionist having ascertained exactly how deep, and in fact, how large, the uterus is. And then this set of dilators, these metallic, curved instruments, are used to effect the opening of the cervix in order to introduce, finally, the abortion instruments themselves. The abortionist first introduces the most slender of these instruments into the cervix, to dilate the cervix, turns the instrument around to a slightly larger end, introduces that end, and then works his way through the various, graduated, increasingly larger ends of this dilating instrument.

He will then take the instrument known as the suction apparatus, which is opened—it is in a sterile container prior to the actual use of the instrument,—and then, this will be inserted through the dilated cervix up into the uterus and will then puncture the sack surrounding the child, allowing the amniotic fluid to escape.

The instrument then will come into direct contact with the child and, with a pressure of approximately 55 or so millimeters of mercury, applied to the end of this instrument, as it is attached to a long, thick suction tubing at this end, and to the abortion instrumentation—that is, the machine—at the other end, the suction tip will begin to tear the child apart. The pieces of the body are torn away, one by one, until finally, all that remains are shards of the body and the head itself.

The head will be too large to come through this instrument itself. This will necessitate the introduction of this instrument, called a polyp forcep, into the uterus, through the already dilated cervix, and the abortionist will then attempt to grasp the free-floating head of the child in the uterus between the rings of this instrument. The head is then crushed, the contents of the head removed, and finally the bones of the head, and the abortion is then effectively at an end.

We’ve seen what the twelve-week child appears on the ultrasound screen, and we have also seen the mechanics—the actual steps—of a twelve-week abortion.

Now for the first time, we’re going to see a film, made with real-time ultrasound imaging, of a twelve-week abortion. Bear in mind that this is not an unusual instance, a late abortion:—this is one of the four thousand or so a day, done every day in the United States. This film was made at an abortion clinic. The physician who performed the abortion was a young man who was working at two different abortion clinics at the time. He had already done close to 10,000 abortions in his young life. When he was asked to attend the editing session to view the film, he was so appalled with what he had done that he left the room momentarily, came back to finish the editing, but never again did another abortion.

The young woman who used the real-time ultrasound camera was a feminist and a strong pro-abortionist. But she too was so moved by what she saw at the editing session that she never again discussed the subject of abortion.

Now, let’s turn to the actual film itself.

We are now looking at a sector scan of a real-time ultrasound imaging of a twelve-week unborn child. The child is orientated in this direction. You are looking now at the head of the child, here; the body of the child, here; and this image is the child’s hand approaching its mouth.

Looking a little more closely at the child, we can discern the eye, or the orbit of the eye, here; the nose of the child here; the mouth of the child here; and we can even look at the ventricle of the brain here. This is a fluid-filled space in the brain. We see the body of the child here, with the ribs in silhouette, and the spine of the child, at the back.

This rather granular area of tissue at the top of the sector appears to be the placenta, or afterbirth, of the child. And we can begin to see down here the thighs, the lower extremities of the child, coming off the body in this manner.

Now, let’s move to the action.

We now see the heart beating, here in the child’s chest; the heart is beating at a rate of approximately one hundred and forty a minute,—and we can see the child moving, rather serenely, in the uterus. One can see it shifting position from time to time—it is still orientated in this manner—and the mouth is receiving the thumb of the child. The child, again, is moving quietly in its sanctuary. Now, this shadow, which we are seeing down at the bottom of the screen, is the suction tip—we have colored the suction tip deliberately in order for you to discern it more clearly—but the abortionist has now dilated the cervix and is now inserting this suction tip, which you can see moving back and forth across the screen.

You will note that as the suction tip, which is now over here, moves toward the child, the child will rear away from it, and undergo much more violent, much more agitated movements; the child is now moving in a much more purposeful manner. Its orientation changes from time to time; it is rearing, again, here. Now the suction tip has not actually touched the child, even though the child is extremely agitated and moving in a violent manner. The child is now moved back to the profile view, and the suction tip is flashing once again across the screen. The child’s mouth is now open, and we will see that again on a freeze-frame in a moment. But this suction tip, which you can see moving violently back and forth on the bottom of the screen, is the lethal instrument which will ultimately tear apart and destroy the child. It is only after the fluid has been broken, the sack has been disrupted, that the tip will actually come against the child; but we can see the tip moving back and forth, as the abortionist seeks the child’s body.

Once again, we see the child’s mouth wide open in a silent scream in this particular freeze-frame. This is The Silent Scream of a child threatened—imminently—with extinction.

Now the heartrate has speeded up dramatically; the child’s movements are violent at this point. It does sense aggression in its sanctuary. It is moving away—one can see it moving to the left side of the uterus—in an attempt, a pathetic attempt, to escape the inexorable instruments which the abortionist is using to extinguish its life.

Now, the heart has, again, perceptibly, speeded up. We can time this at approximately two hundred beats per minute. There is no question this child senses the most mortal danger imaginable.

The membrane has now been punctured, and the fluid has escaped. One no longer sees that large reservoir of fluid surrounding the child. But, once the fluid has been drained off, the suction tip has now been firmly clamped to the child’s body, and the child is being pulled in a downward direction, by the abortionist’s suction tip with the negative pressure applied to it, and the body is now being torn, systematically, from the head. The head of the child being in this direction here—I am now outlining the child’s head. The lower extremities have already been lost. We see the suction tip flashing from time to time in the screen, as a typhoon-like series of echoes. And the child is being tugged back and forth, as the suction tip has now been applied to the body, and the abortionist is exerting his traction on the child in this manner.

The child’s head is still discernable, here; the body is no longer discernable. It has now been torn from the head. What we see now is the head itself, with what is called the midline echo of the head, and the spicules, or fragments of bone. Now this head, which I am outlining here, on this twelve-week child is simply too large to be pulled in one piece out of the uterus. The abortionist is going to have to employ this instrument—the polyp forcep—in an attempt to grab the head. The abortionist will attempt to crush the head with this instrument, in this manner, and remove the head piecemeal from the uterus.

The abortionist and the anesthesiologist have a secret language between them which shields them from the grisly reality of what is going on. The abortionist and the anesthesiologist together refer to the head of this child, which is now being sought, as “Number One.” And the anesthesiologist will inquire of the abortionist, “Is ‘Number One’ out yet? Are we finished?”

We now see, intermittent, the shanks, or blades, of this instrument, appearing in the image, here. The head tends to float freely in the uterus. Here are the shanks, or blades, of the instrument coming across here. And the head is now being locked on by this polyp forcep, and the head is being pulled down toward the cervix. Now all we see remaining are simply the shards, broken fragments, the pieces of tissue, which document that there was once a living, defenseless, tiny human being here.

In considering the impact of abortion on our society, let’s look at some figures as to what has actually happened in the last twenty years. We have reliable figures indicating that in 1963, long before abortion became legalized by the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, there were approximately 100,000 illegal abortions done annually in the United States—and very few legal abortions. In 1973, the first year in which that Roe v. Wade decision prevailed in this county, there were 750,000 abortions done. And in 1983, the last year for which we have full and complete figures, there were 1.5 million abortions.

1963-	100,000 ILLEGAL ABORTIONS PER YEAR
1973-	750,000 LEGAL ABORTIONS PER YEAR

CURRENT-

1,500,000 + LEGAL ABORTIONS PER YEAR

Now let’s look at abortion as an industry. Last year, there were 1.5 million abortions done in this country; and the average cost of an abortion is about three to four hundred dollars per operation. This has created an industry in this country of about five to six hundred million dollars a year, which would qualify to be on the Fortune 500 list of largest industries in the world. Ninety percent of these monies are going into the pockets of physicians and the remainder into the pockets of the entrepreneurs who run the clinics.

Now, we’ve had some recent investigations into the question of these clinics. Clinics are being franchised out, like fast-food services, across the country. We know there are chains of them in California and through the Southwest, and even in the southeast of the United States. And there is some evidence now, that increasingly, these clinics are falling into the hands of the Mob, of the crime syndicate here in the United States, and that this money—abortion money—is tainted, not only by the blood of the innocent victims of abortion, but by the dark hand of the crime syndicate in the United States.

When discussing abortion, we must also understand that the unborn child is not the only victim; women themselves are victims just as the unborn children are. Women have not been told of the true nature of the unborn child; they have not been shown the true facts of what an abortion really is. Women, in increasing numbers—hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands—have had their wombs perforated, infected, destroyed; women have been sterilized and castrated; all as a result of an operation of which they have had no true knowledge.

This film, and other films which may follow like it, must be made a part of the informed consent for any woman before she submits herself to a procedure of this sort. I accuse the National Abortion Rights Action League, I accuse Planned Parenthood, and all its co-conspirators in the abortion industry, of a consistent conspiracy of silence, of keeping women in the dark, with respect to the true nature of abortion; and I challenge all those purveyors of abortion to show this real-time video-tape, or one similar to it, to all women before they consent to abortion.

Now, I think I know a little bit about abortion. I was one of the founders of NARAL in 1969; it’s now known as the National Abortion Rights Action League. And for a period of two years, I was the director of the largest abortion clinic in the western world. Since those times, we have a science which is known as fetology, which has allowed us to study the human fetus; and all of those studies have concluded, without exception, that the unborn child is a human being, indistinguishable from any of us and an integral part of our human community.

Now, the destruction of a living human being is no solution to what is basically a social problem. I believe a resort to such violence is an admission of scientific and, even worse, ethical impoverishment. Somehow, I refuse to believe that Americans, who have put men on the Moon, can’t devise a better solution than the resort to violence. I think we should all, here and now, devote ourselves to an untiring effort to devise a better solution—a solution compounded equally of love and compassion, and a decent regard for the overriding priority of human life. Let’s all, for humanity’s sake, here and now, stop the killing.

Presentation by
Bernard N. Nathanson, M.D.

 

Executive Producer
Donald S. Smith

 

Produced & Directed By
Jack Duane Dabner

Written by
Donald S. Smith

Real Time Ultrasound Video Tape of Vacuum Curettage
Courtesy of
Bernard N. Nathanson, M.D.

Cinematographer
Roger Boller

Additional Cinematography

Bob Miller
Jack Dabner

Camera Assistant
Pam Boller

Sound Technician
Les Kisling

Lighting Technician
Al Magallon

Continuity
Marta Haley Fields

Creative Editor
Dan R. Fouts

Music Composed & Conducted by
James Gabriel Stipech

Sound Stage
Moody Institute of Science

Production Facilities
Seven Star Productions

Special Appreciation is Extended to:

Edward G. Allred, M.D.
Robert G. Wells, M.D.
Jo Anne Chung
Tina O’Flaherty
M. Michele Kunkel
Robin A. Lindsay
Dorie Slaughter
Lorie L. Stewart
Jacquie Van Wagner
Color Atlas of Life Before Birth, Marjorie England
National Aeronautics & Space Administration
Southern California Right to Life League
Williams Obstetrics, Appleton-Century-Crofts