In Part One of this brief two-part series, we discussed the case of Warren Hern, the undisputed king of late-term abortions. Even his fellow abortionists expressed reservations about his methods. For instance, there was evidence from Hern’s interview with The Atlantic’s Elaine Godfrey indicating that at least half of the late-term abortions he performed did not involve babies with severe diagnoses.
Hern considers his religious adversaries to be zealots, and many of them are, as Godfrey writes. However, he is, in his own way, no less an absolutist.
Hern is, as is clear by the second paragraph, a piece of work. Prior to this encounter, I had already encountered Hern on several occasions. Consequently, I was not surprised by his brusque demeanor. He is a 84-year-old man who can be somewhat cantankerous. He is obstinate, utterly certain of his position, and intolerant of criticism even as he dishes it out.
However, as would occur repeatedly, Godfrey mitigates the impact of this assessment. She immediately added, “These are perhaps useful qualities for someone in his line of work.”
Once more, Godfrey indicates that Kate Carson underwent an abortion at Hern’s clinic in 2012.
Carson and other patients described Hern as brusque. But they seemed to take comfort in that brusqueness, as though Hern’s fierce assurance helped them feel more sure themselves. “I wouldn’t say he has a great bedside manner,” Carson told me. But “the degree of respect that I felt from him was enormous.”
Godfrey has tried to humanize a man who was cruel to him nearly 50 years ago. Hern is a well-known photographer. Godfrey writes
Hern is renowned for bestowing such gifts upon individuals and for regularly disseminating his latest published works. In addition to the magnet and the calendar, Hern sent me a copy of his poetry collection and his new book on global ecology. In the latter, titled Homo Ecophagus, he compares humanity to a cancer on the planet, positing that our unrelenting population growth will ultimately lead to the demise of every species on Earth. To view human beings as a scourge seems a rather ominous perspective for a man who ends pregnancies for a living. Could he see his work as, even subliminally, a form of population control? When I asked about that, Hern shook his head vigorously, waving my question away, as if he’d been ready for it. He stated that being concerned about population growth is consistent with the idea of helping women and families control their fertility on a voluntary basis.
There is a consistency in his daily activities, which can be described as pruning the “surplus population.” He also expresses contempt for humanity, describing it as a “cancer on the planet.”
Every time I write about Hern, I inevitably cite a paper presented before the Association of Planned Parenthood Physicians in San Diego titled “What about us?” The topic of staff reactions to D&E—dilation and evacuation abortion—leaps into my mind. Godfrey quoted parts of it back to Hern, but without informing the reader of the title of the paper.
Those capable of performing or assisting with the procedure have expressed strong personal reservations about participating in an operation they view as destructive and violent. Some aspect of our cultural and perhaps even biological heritage recoils at a destructive operation on a form that is similar to our own. At a certain point, there is no possibility of denial of an act of destruction by the operator, as it is before one’s eyes. The sensations of dismemberment flow through the forceps in a manner analogous to an electric current.
Ultimately, the question of Hern’s “specialty” is pivotal to understanding his entire career.
The practice of late-term abortions has persisted throughout the entire arc of Roe v. Wade, spanning nearly 50 years. Dr. Hern specializes in this form of abortion, which is the rarest and most controversial. This means that he performs abortions on women who are 22, 25, and even 30 weeks along. Despite the fact that 14 states have banned abortion in most or all circumstances, Colorado has no gestational limits on the procedure. Patients from across the country seek his services because he is one of only a few physicians who can perform abortions at such an advanced gestational age.
This is a small consolation, but it is a consolation nonetheless. Only a few abortionists have reached this level of depravity.
Daniel Miller is responsible for nearly all of National Right to Life News' political writing.
With the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Daniel Miller developed a deep obsession with U.S. politics that has never let go of the political scientist. Whether it's the election of Joe Biden, the midterm elections in Congress, the abortion rights debate in the Supreme Court or the mudslinging in the primaries - Daniel Miller is happy to stay up late for you.
Daniel was born and raised in New York. After living in China, working for a news agency and another stint at a major news network, he now lives in Arizona with his two daughters.
