It was both a confrontation and a vision that provided the fuel for his medical and moral epiphany, Dr. John Bruchalski recalls in his new book — “Two Patients: My Conversion from Abortion to Life-Affirming Medicine” (Ignatius Press; Oct. 2022).
One night during his residency, Bruchalski induced preterm labor for a patient who didn’t want to carry to term. When the delivery took place, he realized that — given the actual weight, probable age, and potential viability of the newborn — he was legally obligated to render aid. After the immediate emergency passed, a neonatal specialist he had called clashed with the young doctor. “Stop treating these babies like they’re tumors,” she said, summarizing the attitude that unwanted unborn children were nothing more than malignant invaders to be excised. She told Bruchalski he was, “better than that. You’re a good physician.”
A year later, after a mysterious pilgrim at the Marian apparition site of Medjugorje delivered Bruchalski a message echoing those words — “Mary said … to be the best doctor you can be”— he experienced a vision. Bruchalski would afterward treat “two patients” — both mother and child. His new medical path — as well as his return to his Catholic faith — were decided.
In the three decades since, Bruchalski has become a pre-eminent pro-life physician — both through his practice Tepeyac OB/GYN, and its nonprofit support group, Divine Mercy Care in Fairfax.
With Roe v. Wade overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June through Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the future of the pro-life movement and life-affirming medicine is once again at a turning point.
“We’re grateful for Dobbs,” said Bruchalski, “but it is not a time for any one of us to slack off.”
The Dobbs decision doesn’t eliminate abortion, Bruchalski stressed. “It’s now been just pushed back to the states to decide, and each state is going to fight its own battles, politically,” he said. “Because remember, abortion is a political solution to health care. It’s not based in science; it’s not based in medicine … We know genetically, human life begins at a point called fertilization; we were all once a fertilized egg.”
The societal shift toward widespread acceptance of elective abortion has not only complicated reasoned dialogue; it has exponentially raised its temperature, Bruchalski said. “At the core of this is that public discourse has become so coarsened — almost vicious — with condemnation of the other side,” he said.
A growing culture of relativism has further confounded discussion.
“It’s not about the facts,” Bruchalski declared. “The facts today are fungible; they can be manipulated. Science has been co-opted.”
That co-opting relates to the significance of words and their use. “Because we’ve moved away from genetics, and embryology, and microbiology, and cell organizational theory, we’ve moved to ‘wantedness,’ ” Bruchalski explained. “It’s no longer a child, or my child; it’s a blob, it’s a fetus — for 50 years we have bought that lie. It’s a defense mechanism. Because of relativism and now practical atheism, we’re all not created beings anymore — we are all our own gods, and we determine what words mean.”
Regaining the pro-life narrative is a challenge, Bruchalski admits. “Abortion has become such a part of the American fabric,” he observed.
How, then, to change opinions?
“I think it really has to be done heart to heart; person to person,” Bruchalksi said. “It’s literally going one-on-one when the topic comes up.”
That requires, Bruchalski noted, both education and empathy.
“The only way we can help change this dynamic is through example, through mentoring, through being able to educate,” Bruchalski emphasized. “Compassionately look at the other person, walk in their shoes, find the common ground of the pain — and then be educated enough to hopefully enable them to see where their argument falls short,” he suggested.
“This goes far beyond the abortion question — it’s just excellent care for women, and their unborn. And we can continue to do that without having to resort to an elective abortion … We never pit mom against baby, ever — it’s always accompanying both, as far as you can get them.”
Heatherington is a freelancer in Alexandria.
Find out more
A talk and book signing will be held Dec. 9 at Trinity House Cafe in Leesburg, 11 a.m. Go to drjohnbruchalski.com/events.
