It took former abortionist Anthony Levatino a horrific tragedy 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, New York’s OB-GYN explained why he finally stopped aborting unborn babies and became a pro-life advocate.
As a young doctor, I wouldn’t have hesitated to tell you that I am for the choice,’ Levatino said. “This is a decision between a woman and her doctor, and no one, 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 in the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of his medical practice.
He had no doubts about his abortion work at first, but that changed as he and his wife struggled to conceive, Levatino said. After two surgeries, doctors told them they would probably never have biological children. He continued they decided to pursue adoption but were soon notified the process could take five to 10 years.
“It was at that time … when I had my first doubts about it,” Levatino told The First TV. “They were strictly selfish, but I’m no fool. I knew why there are no babies to adopt for people like me [was because of] abortions. And I remember thinking, ‘Gosh, I’m throwing these kids in the trash.'”
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But in 1978, through the Levatinos’ medical connections, they found a girl, Heather, and adopted her, he said. He said his wife became pregnant with their son a month after her adoption.
Their dreams of having children are now fulfilled; Levatino admitted that “any worries I had about abortion just evaporated, and I went back to normalcy.”
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 friends while their children were playing outside. When they heard the screeching of brakes, they said they ran out to see that Heather had been hit by a car.
“She died in our arms in the back of an ambulance,” he said.
After a time of mourning, Levatino went back to work. One day, he would have a second-trimester abortion—something he’d done many times before. But that day would be different.
He said second-trimester abortions involve using a heavy clamp to disassemble the baby, to “literally pull out an arm or a leg.” This time, however, “I just stared at it in the clamp, and I got sick,” he said.
While people may not believe it, Levatino said he didn’t watch the babies he aborted until that day, at least not really.
“For the first time in my career, I looked at that pile of body parts that were once someone’s baby that I just killed,” Levatino said. “And I didn’t see her amazing 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 someone’s son or daughter.”
After that, Levatino stopped doing abortions. Today, he is a pro-life advocate and in-demand speaker. He has testified before Congress and countless audiences in the US about the barbarity of abortion and the value of the lives of unborn babies.