‘You Never Lose Those Scars’: How an Abortionist Decided to Leave the Industry and Became a Pro-Life Leader
Dr. Kathi Aultman, a retired board-certified OB-GYN, transitioned from performing abortions to becoming a pro-life leader. Her decision to leave the abortion industry was influenced by the experience of giving birth to her own child. Initially remaining pro-choice even after becoming a Christian, her perspective shifted after reading an article comparing abortion to the Holocaust. Aultman now serves as an associate scholar with the Charlotte Lozier Institute and participates in the annual March for Life.
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Dr. Kathi Aultman is a retired board-certified OB-GYN and associate scholar with the Charlotte Lozier Institute.1
She performed abortions for years and had one herself before medical school, believing it was necessary for her career.1
Aultman remained pro-choice even after becoming a Christian, viewing abortion as a woman's choice.1
Giving birth to her own child made her question killing "unwanted" babies.1
A pivotal article comparing abortion to the Holocaust—linked to her father's WWII liberation of a concentration camp—led her to see herself as a "mass murderer," prompting her to stop immediately.1
Aultman now marches annually at the March for Life and shares her testimony at rallies.1
She highlights pro-life doctors' perspectives, asserting abortion is not healthcare but harms women physically and psychologically while killing babies.1
Aultman emphasizes enduring "scars" from the procedure, despite God's forgiveness.1
She regrets killing her own child and others', countering claims that abortion is an "easy solution" for timing issues.1
Aultman inspires women to embrace motherhood alongside careers, noting many professionals succeeded with children first or during medical school.1
"You can have both," she affirms, challenging fears that delay family life.1
Investigate Catholic teachings on abortion’s moral status
Catholic teaching unequivocally condemns direct abortion as a grave moral evil, intrinsically contrary to the divine law that protects innocent human life from the moment of conception. This position, rooted in Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, holds that abortion constitutes the deliberate killing of an innocent human being, warranting automatic excommunication and demanding repentance and conversion. The Church's doctrine remains unchanged and unchangeable, emphasizing the sacredness of life while distinguishing it from broader social ethics, though acknowledging its profound societal ramifications.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law." This is not a matter of prudential judgment but an absolute prohibition, as it violates the Fifth Commandment: "You shall not kill." Pope John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae describes procured abortion as "the deliberate and direct killing... of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence," an "unspeakable crime" that obscures the moral sense and equates to murder of the most innocent. No circumstance, purpose, or law can justify it, for it is "intrinsically illicit" and opposed to natural law knowable by reason.
This gravity stems from the victim's utter innocence: "No one more absolutely innocent could be imagined." The Church has affirmed this since the first century, with early Christians opposing Greco-Roman practices of abortion and infanticide. Tertullian called it "anticipated murder," and the Didache condemned it outright. Scientific debates on ensoulment never wavered this condemnation. Recent popes, including Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII, and Paul VI, have reaffirmed it, culminating in Vatican II's stern rebuke. Pope Francis echoes this, rejecting abortion even for fetal disabilities as an "inhumane eugenic mentality," stressing life's sacredness pre-religion.
Formal cooperation in abortion incurs latae sententiae excommunication: "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication... by the very commission of the offense." This applies to accomplices essential to the act, underscoring its severity against life, parents, and society. The 1917 and 1983 Codes of Canon Law maintain this tradition to awaken conscience and spur conversion, not to limit mercy. Evangelium Vitae notes: "The purpose of the penalty of excommunication is to make an individual fully aware of the gravity of a certain sin and then to foster genuine conversion and repentance."
Scripture does not explicitly address procured abortion but implies its prohibition through profound respect for prenatal life. Psalm 139 portrays God forming the child in the womb, numbering its days from conception. The command "You shall not kill" extends logically to the unborn under divine providence. The Catechism synthesizes this with Tradition and Magisterium as its sources. Evangelium Vitae invokes the ordinary Magisterium's unanimous teaching: "Direct abortion... always constitutes a grave moral disorder."
While primarily a bioethical issue under life ethics (a sin against the Fifth Commandment), abortion overlaps with social ethics due to its legal, political, and communal dimensions. Moral theology divides into sexual-marital, life, and social ethics; abortion fits life ethics to avoid redundancy but enters social teaching via laws, rights, and common good. Thomas D. Williams notes its "social dimension" in jurisprudence, conscientious objection, and imperfect laws, making it "more [pertinent] to the area of social ethics than to bioethics" amid debates. It uniquely destroys innocent life, undermining social justice where society must protect the vulnerable. Civil laws permitting it lack moral binding force, corrupting authority and the common good. Evangelium Vitae declares such laws "radically opposed... to the good of the individual but also to the common good."
Pope John Paul II warns against ambiguous terms like "interruption of pregnancy," urging truthful naming amid moral crisis. The Magisterium guides interpretation, as in using Evangelium Vitae alongside Scripture.
In summary, Catholic teaching presents abortion as an unchanging grave sin against life, demanding protection of the unborn, legal reform, and personal conversion. The Church calls for courage in truth, mercy for the repentant, and societal commitment to the common good, where life's defense is foundational.