[6] Nathanson was licensed to practice medicine in New York state in 1952,[6] and became board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology in 1960.
[4] He was for a time the director of the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health (CRASH), then the largest free-standing abortion facility in the world.
In 1974, Nathanson wrote: "I am deeply troubled by my own increasing certainty that I had in fact presided over 60,000 deaths.
[10] In 1984, Nathanson directed and narrated a film titled The Silent Scream, in co-operation with the National Right to Life Committee, which contained the ultrasound video of a mid-term (12 weeks) abortion.
In December 1996, Nathanson was baptized by John Cardinal O'Connor in a private Mass with a group of friends in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral.
When asked why he converted to Roman Catholicism, he stated that "no religion matches the special role for forgiveness that is afforded by the Catholic Church".