{"id":47188,"date":"2021-10-14T14:26:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T18:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/from-abortionist-to-pro-life-leader-what-changed-this-doctors-heart\/"},"modified":"2021-10-14T14:26:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T18:26:00","slug":"from-abortionist-to-pro-life-leader-what-changed-this-doctors-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/from-abortionist-to-pro-life-leader-what-changed-this-doctors-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"From abortionist to pro-life leader. What changed this doctor’s heart?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cAnd she said, \u2018No, I just want to kill it,\u2019\u201d Aultman recalled. \u201cAnd it just struck me, you know, how could she be so hostile and angry towards this little baby? It hadn’t done anything wrong. That really affected me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A third patient came in for an abortion. She already had four children, but she and her husband decided they couldn\u2019t afford another child. Aultman remembers the patient cried during the entire abortion. That was the final straw for Aultman, and the last abortion she would perform. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, I could no longer personally do abortions,\u201d Aultman said. \u201cI couldn’t abort babies just because they were unwanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

A dramatic shift in thinking<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aultman no longer performed abortions, but for several years she continued to refer for abortion at her own practice, which she opened in 1981. That same year, she accepted the role of medical director for Planned Parenthood of Northeast Florida. The clinic did not perform abortions at the time. Aultman quit that role in 1983, when the clinic expanded its services to include abortion.<\/p>\n

Aultman in her first year of private practice, outside her office, which was under construction. Kathi Aultman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Aultman still believed that abortion was a woman\u2019s right. It was easy for her to wonder where she would be if not for her own abortion all those years ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had bought the line that the worst thing that could happen to a woman was an unwanted pregnancy,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Then Aultman would see young pregnant women come to her practice, and thrive after giving birth to their children. She remembers a family at her Christian church had a baby with Down syndrome, and Aultman watched in awe as the baby grew into what Aultman described as a sweet little girl. But many of the women she saw coming into her practice after abortions carried psychological or physical complications. <\/p>\n

\u201cSlowly, this was beginning to make me wonder if everything that I believed [about abortion] was really true,\u201d Aultman said. <\/p>\n

In terms of her own abortion, Aultman began to realize the fears she had at the time were unfounded. She had met plenty of women who had babies and were now successful doctors. She and her first husband ended up getting divorced, despite the abortion. Aultman also realized that the family and friends who really counted would have been understanding about her unplanned pregnancy. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo none of the reasons that I came up with for having the abortion ended up being valid,\u201d Aultman said. <\/p>\n

Aultman turned these questions over in her mind. One day, a friend from her church sent her an article that likened abortion with the Holocaust. It was a particularly sensitive topic for Aultman because her father had been with the unit that liberated the first concentration camp during World War II. She had grown up with the stories and photographs of that historic, harrowing moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, when I became a doctor, I couldn’t understand how the German doctors could do what they did,\u201d Aultman said. \u201cSo with that background, when I read this article, it really hit me. I mean, it \u2026 just removed the blinders. All of a sudden, I thought, \u2018Well, no wonder they could do what they did. Look at what I did because I didn’t see [the unborn] as human beings.\u201d <\/p>\n

Suddenly, Aultman saw herself as a mass murderer. It happened to be within a few years of the arrest and execution of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, and Aultman remembers thinking that she had probably killed a lot more people than Bundy had. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the point when I understood that abortion was wrong, and I became pro-life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Healing and advocacy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aultman became pro-life around the year 1995, and she said it took another year for her to truly heal and forgive herself for her past involvement with abortion. <\/p>\n

During that year, she visited the Christian Healing Center in Jacksonville and she said she had an experience of forgiveness there. As a woman prayed over her, Altman saw herself at the foot of Jesus. She had a dialogue with Jesus, in which He asked why she could not forgive herself when He had forgiven her. Altman then saw the baby she had aborted. He was a little boy, and he told her he forgave her. <\/p>\n

Soon after, Aultman went public with her pro-life stance, speaking out against abortion and in particular against partial-birth abortion.<\/p>\n

\"Aultman
Aultman during an interview with Focus on the Family in January 2020. Kathi Aultman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even with her experience of forgiveness from God and her aborted baby, Aultman still struggled to tell her now-husband, Ron Combs, about her past. The pair met in 2000, and Combs remembers that Aultman waited to share her story with him. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I understood the journey and how it came about, because I’m of that same generation,\u201d he said. \u201cI remember how strongly pro-abortion came on back in the 60s, 70s and early 80s …They were pushing it so hard. I can understand why all women were thinking that was the way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Combs shares his wife\u2019s pro-life beliefs, and although her pro-life work sometimes requires travel and long hours, Combs says he fully supports his wife and the work she is doing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI’m very proud of her, and fortunate to be married to her,\u201d he said. \u201cShe is committed to this, and she believes in it. .. And I support her in it as far as she can physically and mentally take it, because of course there’s a lot of pushback when you go in there and tell people the facts. You know, people don’t like facts all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aultman said her involvement in legal battles related to abortion has always been a challenge. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just trusted that God would take care of me.\u201d <\/p>\n

Aultman retired from her practice and her pro-life advocacy in 2014, for medical reasons. After a year of recovery, Aultman began praying to God for guidance for her retirement. She had always envisioned spending her retirement in the mission field, working in Africa or somewhere similar, but her health issues would not allow for it. She asked God to let her still do something meaningful.<\/p>\n

The next week, she got a call. Could she go to Washington and testify before Congress on a heartbeat bill? She happily agreed. Since then, Aultman has testified, written affidavits and declarations in abortion cases across the country, more recently in New York and Louisiana. <\/p>\n

When Aultman heard that the U.S. Supreme Court would consider Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization, she was immediately intrigued. She was one of 240 pro-life women to sign an amicus brief in the case, challenging the assumption that women are socially and economically better off with access to legal abortion. <\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I was one of those women who believed that women had to have abortion in order to succeed,\u201d Aultman said. \u201cThat was a lie. It wasn’t true. I still could have been a professional, I still could have done what I did, as many other women had done that I trained with. So I felt it was important to sign on to that [amicus] brief.\u201d<\/p>\n

A powerful pro-life witness<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Jan. 18, 2019, a crowd of pro-life advocates gathered before a stage at the national March for Life in Washington.<\/p>\n

Men, women and children were bundled in coats and scarves to protect themselves against the cold of winter. They clutched signs with messages including \u201cChoose Life\u201d and \u201cDefund Planned Parenthood,\u201d and watched as Aultman walked up to the podium on the stage. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy name is Dr. Kathi Aultman,\u201d she began. \u201cI\u2019m a retired OB-GYN. I used to do abortions, but by God\u2019s grace, I\u2019m now pro-life.\u201d <\/p>\n

Aultman then shared her story, and pleaded with the crowd to continue their work changing hearts and minds on abortion. <\/p>\n

\u201cHelp people to see that what is in the womb is a person, with their own unique characteristics and potential, not just a blob of tissue,\u201d Aultman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA woman cannot kill her child and remain unscathed. There are millions of women in the United States who have had abortions. Some of you are here. They are hurting, and need your help and compassion. They need to know that God wants to heal and restore them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sue Liebel is state policy director for the Susan B. Anthony List. She remembers the first time she heard Aultman share the story of her pro-life conversion, and testify on partial-birth abortion. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually shocked,\u201d Liebel told CNA. \u201cThen, I was mesmerized as she described with such transparency exactly how she did abortions in her previous career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile painfully clear how the procedure \u2014 especially dismemberment\u2014 kills the baby and sometimes hurts the mother\u2019s body, Aultman still showed respect and caring for her patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liebel has since seen Aultman testify three other times, and she said Aultman\u2019s unique perspective as a former abortionist is powerful for the pro-life cause. <\/p>\n

\u201cHer testimony is so powerful,\u201d Liebel said. \u201cI know her personally and sometimes this exhausts her, yet she keeps going because she can speak the truth into the abortion debate. And people stop and listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Aultman\u2019s testimony is powerful, Liebel said her demeanor is disarmingly humble.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer kind voice and respectful approach removes the vitriol seen in so many of the [abortion] hearings,\u201d Liebel said. \u201cShe wants to bring truth and healing into America\u2019s painful abortion reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love, bravery can change hearts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, Aultman has two daughters. She still lives in Florida with her husband, Ron. She is an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research and education branch of the Susan B. Anthony List. <\/p>\n

She told CNA she isn\u2019t in an environment in which she hears a lot of criticism for her pro-life beliefs. She has friends and family members who are pro-abortion, including her mother. But Aultman said her mother is supportive of her pro-life work. <\/p>\n

Aultman believes a gentle, loving approach is the best way to convince others to reconsider their position on abortion. She remembers the example of other obstetricians at her practice, when she was still referring patients for abortions. Several of them came to her when they were pregnant, and asked about her stance on abortion. When she told them that she supported abortion as a woman\u2019s right, they calmly told her they could no longer stay in her practice and left. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat made a difference to me,\u201d Aultman said. \u201cI think that was also one of the things that began to change my outlook. They were brave enough, and they did it gently. They didn’t do it in a mean way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think you have to love people, but I think you have to be brave enough to be honest about what your feelings are, and let people know in little ways that aren’t offensive that you believe in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Kate\n<\/div>\n

Kate Olivera is executive producer of Catholic News Agency’s podcasts: CNA Newsroom and CNA Editor’s Desk. She has a BA in journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has worked at Catholic News Agency since 2012; and was previously a staff writer at The Catholic Voice in the Archdiocese of Omaha.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n