Former Abortionist Explains Why He’s Now Pro-Life and Stopped Doing Abortions

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jun 17, 2022   |   4:57PM   |   Washington, DC

It took a horrific tragedy for former abortionist Anthony Levatino to wake up and realize he was killing other people’s children.

And it happened when he lost one of his own.

In an interview Wednesday on The First TV, the New York OB-GYN explained why he finally quit aborting unborn babies and became a pro-life advocate.

As a young doctor, “I wouldn’t have hesitated to tell you I’m pro-choice,” Levatino said. “This is a decision between a woman, her doctor, and nobody including the baby’s father has anything to say about it.”

He said he learned to do first- and second-trimester abortions as part of his OB-GYN training, and began doing them as part of his private medical practice in the late 1970s and early ’80s.

At first, he had no doubts about his abortion work, but that changed when he and his wife struggled to get pregnant, Levatino said. After two surgeries, doctors told them that they likely never would have biological children. They decided to pursue adoption but soon were told the process could take five to ten years, he continued.

“It was during that time … when I had my first doubts about it,” Levatino told The First TV. “They were strictly selfish, but I’m not a fool. I knew the reason there are no babies to adopt for people like me [was because of] abortions. And I remember literally thinking, ‘Gosh, I’m throwing these kids in the garbage.’”

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But in 1978, through the Levatinos’ medical connections, they found a baby girl, Heather, and adopted her, he said. A month after her adoption, he said his wife became pregnant with their son.

Their dreams of having children now fulfilled, Levatino admitted that “any concerns I had about abortion simply evaporated and I went back to business as usual.”

Until six years later, that is.

On a “beautiful” day, June 23, 1984, in Albany, New York, Levatino said he and his wife were visiting with friends while their children played outside. When they heard a screech of brakes, he said they rushed outside to see Heather had been hit by a car.

“She literally died in our arms in the back of an ambulance,” he said.

After a time of grieving, Levatino went back to work. One day, he was scheduled to do a second-trimester abortion – something he had done many times before. But that day would be different.

He said second-trimester abortions involve using a heavy clamp to dismember the baby, to “literally rip out an arm or a leg.” This time, however, “I just stared at it in the clamp and I got sick,” he said.

Though people may not believe it, Levatino said he really did not look at the babies who he was aborting until that day, at least not really.

“For the first time in my career, I looked at that pile of body parts that used to be somebody’s baby that I had just killed,” Levatino said. “And I didn’t see her wonderful right to choose, and I didn’t see all the money I just made in 15 minutes (about $2,000) … all I could see was somebody’s son or daughter.”

After that, Levatino quit doing abortions. Today, he is a pro-life advocate and much sought-after speaker. He has testified before Congress and numerous audiences across the U.S. about the barbarity of abortion and the value of unborn babies’ lives.