Retiring abortionist kills media claim late-term abortions are rare

Elective late-term abortions are performed “all the time.”

That’s what retiring Colorado-based abortionist Warren Hern said of his practice, dismissing the false claims by the abortion…

Elective late-term abortions are performed “all the time.”

That’s what retiring Colorado-based abortionist Warren Hern said of his practice, dismissing the false claims by the abortion industry and the legacy media that such abortions rarely occur.

The myth often goes further, claiming late abortions are always due to life-threatening circumstances and severe fetal anomalies. 

But in a recent interview – just days after Kamala Harris’ abortion-centered campaign was loudly defeated by Trump – Hern told podcast host Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, that he performs elective late-term abortions “all the time.” 

“Do you ever get any women in their second half of the second trimester, or in the third trimester, that say they have no medical problems, they just don’t want the baby, they change their mind – would you do it?” Shermer asked Hern. 

“Well, of course, if the woman doesn’t want to be pregnant, there’s no justification for forcing her to continue the pregnancy,” Hern said matter-of-factly.  

“Okay,” Shermer continued. “Has that happened? … I mean if she has no medical problems.” 

“That happens all the time … the medical problem is that she’s pregnant!” Hern retorted. 

Shermer pressed him further. 

“What I’m asking is, if she just changed her mind, she could deliver fine, she’s healthy, but she just said I – ” 

“We don’t know that!” Hern snapped back, adding: 

“Any woman who’s pregnant is at risk of dying at any time from that point on until six weeks after she is not pregnant. And, so, that is, that is a well-known risk … the principal decision point on the treatment of the pregnancy – whether it’s medical management in obstetrical care and term delivery or abortion – depends on the woman’s desire or lack of desire to be pregnant, and if she doesn’t want to be pregnant, then the treatment of choice is abortion for her.” 

In his experience, Hern also told Shermer, “pregnancy has all of the characteristics of an illness condition,” and it is actually a very “dangerous” condition for a woman: 

“My conclusion … is that the treatment of choice for pregnancy is abortion – unless the woman wants to have a baby. And that is quite a different perspective than much of the current ideology which puts the embryo and the fetus first and is willing to sacrifice the life of the woman.” 

Julie Wilkenson, a registered nurse who worked for Hern for over two years at his Boulder abortion clinic in the 1980s, confirmed to The Lion that “most” of the women who sought a late-term abortion at his clinic during her time there were not experiencing a highly complicated pregnancy. 

Wilkenson, who experienced a life change after attending a retreat given by national pro-life leader Abby Johnson, explained: 

“No, they just didn’t want to. It was not uncommon for it to be a fairly young girl whose mom hadn’t been paying attention, and then all of a sudden she noticed her daughter in the shower with a tummy. I don’t even remember a case while I was there that it was because of a birth defect.” 

Now a grandmother and a pro-life speaker herself, Wilkenson described one of the saddest cases she experienced in Hern’s clinic: a young, fairly well-to-do couple who discovered they were pregnant with twins and simply decided to abort them. 

“They decided twins did not fit their lifestyle, and we aborted their healthy twins,” she lamented. 

Despite the late-term abortionist’s clear ideology and practice, even just this past Friday, the New York Times claimed that President Donald Trump recently “repeated false claims about abortion rights, vowing to ‘stop the radical Democrat push for a federal right to unlimited abortion on demand up to the moment of birth and even after birth.’” 

In a piece published at Ms. on Jan. 17, Carole Joffe also reported that Hern is retiring from his Boulder abortion clinic – located in a state with no gestational limits on abortion. There, Hern has regularly performed abortions “through 32+ weeks gestation.” 

Joffe, however, said Hern himself says he performs these very late abortions “in caring for women with advanced pregnancies afflicted with serious medical complications and fetal abnormalities.” 

However, Hern admitted to The Atlantic in 2023 that his very late-term abortions are actually not restricted to these severe cases, and that the phone at his clinic “rings constantly these days,” a reference to time since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. 

Hern said about half of the babies he aborts are healthy and have no fetal abnormalities. 

“Patients come to him from all over the country because he is one of only a handful of physicians who can, and will, perform an abortion so late,” Elaine Godfrey wrote for The Atlantic, adding abortion rights activists are still fumbling with a defense of these late procedures that “result in the removal of a body that, if you saw it, would inspire a sharp pang of recognition.” 

A baby is a fetus until it is “born alive,” Hern insisted, admitting he has also performed sex-selection abortions. 

“It was their choice to make,” he told the journalist. 

Hern’s website describes the four-day procedure for late-term abortions, which includes a step called “inducing fetal demise.” 

Still, the leftist media describes the pro-life movement as “extreme.” 

It’s no surprise some of those pro-life advocates are calling out the legacy media. 

“America’s most prestigious newspapers routinely paint pro-lifers as extreme,” Tim Graham, executive editor of Media Research Center’s Newsbusters, told The Christian Post. “They can’t seem to locate themselves on the opposite extreme.” 

Photo credit: The Michael Shermer Show (YouTube)