Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

"I'm considered a liberal except for that unaccountable heresy of recent years that has to do with pro-life matters." Nat Hentoff

On Monday, June 24th, the New York Times published an article about a documentary by David L. Lewis entitled, "The Pleasures of Being Out of Step: Notes on the Life of Nat Hentoff."  If you aren't familiar with Hentoff, you can read about him here, but he is probably most well known for his work in jazz and as a journalist for Rolling Stone Magazine.

NYT's Rapold says it this way, "The director, David L. Lewis, presents a man who’s all about the voice – letting it sing, as in the instrumental improvisations of the jazz he loves, and keeping it alive, through his dogmatic defense of the First Amendment."

I have always like Nat Hentoff, a self proclaimed atheist and libertarian. Although we saw many things very differently, he had guts and was always passtionately outspoken on many subjects that made reading his many columns enjoyabale. 

One subject of common ground was the topic of abortion.  Nat Hentoff was a strong voice for the unborn, believing that women did not have the right to have an abortion.  You can imagine how much that ticked off many liberals. If you haven't yet had a chance, take the time to read Hentoff's piece from 1986, "The Invisible Fight for Life," where he speaks about his conversion on the topic of abortion and his voice for those babies aborted because of an adverse diagnosis.

I am looking forward to seeing the film. I have great respect for the man. One thing I found interesting was that from what I read in the review, David L. Lewis seems to go out of his way to discredit Nat's position on abortion pointing out the fact that his wife terminated a pregnancy in the 1960's.

Lewis states, "In the film, Ms. Hentoff talks about having had an abortion in the 1960s, with her husband acknowledging that he reluctantly acquiesced. There is an inherent contradiction between his position and his actions that I tried to bring out in the film as best I could."

It's interesting that Lewis felt such a pull to make Nat's position seem like a contradiction. Having done post abortion ministry for 20 years, it makes perfect sense to me, and is something we see all the time. The woman, who the man loves, wants an abortion. Besides feeling like they don't have a voice (although I cannot imagine him not having one), Nat was all for women's rights.  But, I am sure he felt like he could not tell his wife what to do because it was, after all, "her body." It makes great sense that not only would he be personally prolife, but that he would evolve, speak out, and write about the wrong of abortion. Now he knew the truth on a personal level. His child was dead.

There is no contradiction in having an abortion and being pro life. In fact, unfortunately, it is very often the thing that brings the truth of abortion to many people, but I will wait to see how it is approached in the documentary before I say more.

Personally, I want to thank Mr. Hentoff for his many years of being a voice for his child, for mine, and the millions of others. Who knows how many people were spared the pain of abortion by his empassioned voice.  I am sure one day he'll find out.