Infamous Boulder, Colo., late-term abortionist Dr. Warren Hern, closed his facility earlier this week, ending more than 50 years of killing an estimated more than, 40,000 unborn children in the second and third trimesters.
Hern appeared to have abruptly shut down the Boulder Abortion Clinic, one of a few late-term abortion facilities in the U.S., months after his retirement in January. Hern had said initially that his abortion center would stay open after he retired.
“Closed. No Longer Scheduling Patients,” the abortionist’s website stated at press time.
In a letter format to those visiting the site, Hern wrote, in part, “It has been a privilege to do this work for almost 55 years.”
And after saying that, “nothing else matters,” while his clients’ lives are “stake,” Hern said that he “must now leave this sacred commitment to others.”
“I remain committed to reproductive freedom for women, and I will find other ways to support that,” the man The New Yorker called, “America’s Abortion Doctor,” said.
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Hern’s abortion facility saw about 45,000 abortion clients during its operation, according to The Denver Post.
Hern performed late-term abortions on women who received a fatal fetal diagnosis, but also on teens and young women who didn’t know they were pregnant until the second or third trimester.
Hern also performed two abortions on two different women who didn’t like the sex of their child, “once for a woman who did not want a girl and another for a woman who did not want a boy,” the Christion Post reported this week.
Reactions to the news
Both pro-life and pro-abortion entities reacted to news of the facility’s closure.
The Denver Post quoted Laura Chapin, spokeswoman for the pro-abortion organization Cobalt, who praised Hern, saying, “Warren Hern was a trailblazer in the abortion rights movement, and his legacy carries over to ensuring we can protect abortion access today and going forward.”
Pro-life advocates praised the closing of Hern’s facility.
In an email to supporters, Sidewalk Advocates for Life founder and CEO Lauren Muzyka wrote that it was “the amazing news that the late-term abortion facility that had operated for 50 years in the abortion-destination state of Colorado is permanently closed!”
When contacted by Pregnancy Help News, Muzyka said:
“We rejoiced at hearing the news that the notorious, long-term abortion facility in Boulder, Colorado, is permanently closed. I had the opportunity to do outreach outside this facility with our local Sidewalk Advocates team. While there, the Boulder community shared that sunlight rarely touches the sidewalk, but amidst the chill, we felt the warmth of hope radiating from our presence. And now two years later, by God's grace, we are celebrating the fruits of those prayers and outreach as the doors of this wound on the community are finally and forever closing!"
On X Live Action’s Lila Rose posted, “After murdering thousands of 2nd & 3rd-trimester babies over five 5 decades, Abortionist Warren Hern has "retired" & closed his Colorado killing center. We will not stop working until every killing center is shut down.”
Tweet This: After murdering thousands of 2nd & 3rd-trimester babies over five 5 decades, abortionist Warren Hern has closed his Colorado killing center.
Her organization posted this on X: “After committing over 42,000 abortions, late-term abortionist Warren Hern is not just retiring — he is shutting down his facility. The Boulder Abortion Clinic was one of the only facilities in the nation willing to kill babies up to 36 weeks.”
Colorado’s abortion history and current status
Hern opened his private abortion practice in January 1975, a few years after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision but had conducted abortions previously.
Colorado is an abortion state, going so far as to attempt to outlaw the choice of Abortion Pill Reversal, however, a district judge ruled that APR could not be banned after a group sued the state over that law. Colorado is also one of a few states that doesn’t ascribe a gestational age limit on abortion, and it was one of the first states to legalize abortion prior to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. At that time, the state legalized abortion through all three trimesters.
Last November, Colorado voters approved a measure to codify the legality of abortion into the state constitution.
A report published last year by the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) shows that more than 14,600 abortions were done in the state in 2023, rising nearly four percent from the previous year and “the highest total reported in the state since 1985.” Many women come from out-of-state for abortions. Although chemical abortion rose nearly six percent and accounted for the majority of reported abortions (64 percent), late term surgical abortions, such as those performed by Hern, increased 16 percent from 2022, according to the CLI’s report.
Findings on late-term abortions in Colorado show:
- Four percent of 2023 abortions were performed on women between 16 and 20 weeks along.
- 468 abortions were done at 21 weeks or later, and of those 137 were performed at 28 weeks or later.
- Abortions at 21 weeks or later comprised more than three percent of abortion totals in Colorado during 2023.
Hern and other late-term abortionists
An article on Colorado’s 9News reported that Hern, 86, commented on closing his facility, saying, “‘We have offered and provided the safest, most supportive and humane service as possible. I am proud of what my staff and I have done together to help these people.’"
“I decided that performing abortions was the most important thing I could do in medicine at that point,” Hern added.
In a 2023 article about Hern, Elaine Godfrey of The Atlantic wrote, “Regardless of the circumstances of pregnancy, in Hern’s view, a woman’s life—her humanity, her wishes—isn’t just more important than her fetus’s. It is virtually the only thing that matters.” The article also stated that Hern “believes that the viability of a fetus is determined not by gestational age but by a woman’s willingness to carry it.”
The reporter posed a question to him that appeared to irritate the abortionist. She asked, “‘So if a pregnant woman with no health issues comes to the clinic, say, at 30 weeks, what would you do?’” His response? “‘Every pregnancy is a health issue! There’s a certifiable risk of death from being pregnant, period.’”
Hern's late-term abortion facility closed. However, others still exist, and are promoted, in America.
