Abortionist wrecks narrative, says late-term elective abortions happen ‘all the time’

Well-known Colorado-based abortionist Warren Hern has for years been one of the few abortionists willing to commit late-term abortions through all nine months of pregnancy for essentially any reason. Yet the media has consistently been pushing a narrative that late-term abortions are only committed in cases of medical necessity, despite the reality of the situation – and statements made by abortionists like Hern himself.

Hern recently appeared on The Michael Shermer Show, where he was asked about the kinds of women he sees in his abortion business. “Are people coming to you from other states now?” Shermer asked. “You’re in Colorado.”

“Yeah, I’ve had patients coming to me from all over the country since I opened my practice,” Hern responded. “And that’s been especially true since I developed the techniques and instruments and procedures for doing the later abortions, which are much more difficult and take a lot more expertise and experience.” Hern was likely referring to the dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedure, which he says he pioneered in the 1970s, claiming it was safer for women than previous late-term abortion procedures, like saline abortions.

This is a D&E abortion:

Shermer and Hern then discussed what leads women to have late-term abortions.

“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?” Shermer asked. “Would you do it?”

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

“Okay. Has that happened?” Shermer pressed.

“It happens all the time, of course,” Hern answered. “She has a potentially fatal illness, condition that can kill her – ”

“No, no, I mean, if she has no medical problems,” Shermer interjected.

“The medical problem is that she’s pregnant!” Hern snapped.

In other words, the very fact that a woman is pregnant is “medical reason” enough for Hern to kill her preborn child. Planned Parenthood has also espoused this philosophy. Court documents from a 2015 trial showed that Planned Parenthood abortionists in Alaska (if not elsewhere) had been uniformly classifying all Medicaid abortions as “medically necessary.”

Interviewer: “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?”

Abortionist: “Of course…. That happens all the time.” pic.twitter.com/j8iRp0WgE5

— Robert A. J. Gagnon (@RobertAJGagnon1) November 12, 2024

Hern has previously addressed several of these issues. In a recent interview with the New Yorker, Hern repeated the claim that abortion is safer than pregnancy. He has also called human beings a “planetary cancer,” and said that pregnancy is a disease.

“Pregnancy is not a benign condition. It can kill you. The treatment of choice for pregnancy is abortion unless the woman wants to carry the pregnancy to term and have a baby,” he said. “That is a view that is abhorrent to those who believe that the purpose of women, aside from giving men pleasure and doing the housework, is to have as many babies as possible.”

Only one study has ever been able to find that childbirth is more dangerous than abortion (and has never been replicated), and it was authored by two pro-abortion researchers.

In his book “Abortion Practice,” Hern also admitted that most late-term abortions are not committed due to medical necessity. “At times, medical considerations enter into the picture,” he wrote, “but decisions are usually made on the basis of such factors as desire or lack of desire for parenthood, stability of relationships, educational status, emotional status, or economic status, among others.” (emphasis added)

Hern has been contradictory lately on this issue, telling the New Yorker, for example, that late-term abortions are committed because those women have “the most difficult circumstances.” Yet on occasion — such as in the Shermer interview — Hern lets the truth slip out. And that truth, as he well knows, is that most late-term abortions are committed on healthy babies.

A 1988 Guttmacher study found that just two percent (2%) of women who had abortions late in pregnancy did so because of a health problem with the baby. More than 20 years later, a 2013 study — also published by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute — said, “[D]ata suggest that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.”

Another study from the pro-abortion group ANSIRH stated, “The reasons people need third-trimester abortions are not so different from why people need abortions before the third trimester… [T]he circumstances that lead to someone needing a third-trimester abortion have overlaps with the pathways to abortion at other gestations.”

That research also revealed:

There are thus many reasons—financial, logistical, and social—why third-trimester abortion care is exceptional compared to first-trimester abortion care. However, there is reason to believe that the circumstances that lead to someone needing a third-trimester abortion are not exceptional. Several studies have highlighted the importance of the timing of pregnancy discovery, with later discovery associated with later presentation to abortion care.

Other research has identified how laws that complicate people’s ability to access abortion, including parental involvement laws and laws that contribute to the reduction of abortion clinics, are associated with later presentation to abortion care for patients.

Some women in the study reported that they didn’t know they were pregnant until later in pregnancy, and this was why their abortions were sought late in pregnancy.

According to a report from the Congressional Research Service, pro-abortion researcher Diana Greene Foster stated that abortions for fetal abnormalities “make up a small minority of later abortion.” In addition, a 2010 paper from Julia Steinberg of the pro-abortion Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health said, “Research suggests that the overwhelming majority of women having later abortions do so for reasons other than fetal anomaly (Drey et al., 2006; Finer et al., 2005, 2006; Foster et al., 2008).”

Hern’s statement – “the medical problem is that she’s pregnant” – sums up the entire issue. Abortionists are not killing preborn babies because women need them due to medical emergencies. They’re doing it, quite simply, because they can.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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