A Colorado clinic infamous for late-term abortions has shuttered after 50 years of being open, Associated Press reported.
“It became impossible to continue, but closing is one of the most painful decisions of my life,” 87-year-old clinic founder and late-term abortionist Dr. Warren Hern said of closing the Boulder Abortion Clinic last month.
The clinic was one of the few in the U.S. that aborted unborn babies after 28 weeks of pregnancy, and for years, Hern was the only abortionist in the U.S. who performed abortions later in pregnancy, according to the report.
The clinic ultimately closed because of financial issues: Hern said many women had difficulty paying for $10,000 late-term abortions, which are often not covered by insurance, and said the number of longtime personal donors was also decreasing, the report states. He said he hoped someone would take over his practice, but no one ever did.
“I had to make a decision really, you know, sort of on the basis of the situation at the moment that we couldn’t continue,” he said. “It was very, very painful. I see this as my personal failure.”
Hern has been quoted in various left-wing media outlets discussing his performance of late-term abortions. In an extensive interview with The Atlantic published in May of 2023, he admitted to going up to 32 weeks and beyond.
One woman the reporter spoke with recalled getting an abortion from Hern at 35 weeks after her baby was diagnosed with brain anomalies that would have led to her child living with disabilities. The woman described the late abortion as “euthanasia” and said, “I put my baby down.”
For example, there were 625,978 legal induced abortions recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2021. One percent of those were after 21 weeks, which is more than 6,000 post-viability babies killed in abortions. The pro-abortion Guttmacher institute estimated that more than one million abortions were performed in 2024, which by CDC estimates could mean at least 10,000 late-term abortions were performed that year.
READ MORE – Report: Abortions Increased Again in 2024 Post-Roe, Surpassing One Million Unborn Babies Killed
There is disagreement on what the term “late-term abortion” actually means. Pro-abortion organizations often reject the term and say the official medical definition of “late-term” would mean 41 weeks, or past full-term. The pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute has called the definition of late-term abortion “imprecise and shifting,” but has generally defined it as abortion later in pregnancy, typically when babies can survive outside of the womb, “with instances of survival occurring at 22 weeks gestation or slightly earlier.”
The Atlantic article describes Hern’s late-term abortion method in brutal detail, noting that “sometimes, the fetus will be whole, intact,” and other times he “must
Nine states and Washington, DC, have no limits on abortion, according to Abortion Finder. Those states are Alaska, Vermont, Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan, Maryland, and New Jersey. Under Roe v. Wade, a now-defunct 1973 Supreme Court decision which had invented a constitutional right to abortion, most states allowed abortions up to viability, which is often considered to be between 20 and 24 weeks. Some states allowed abortions after that point, sometimes under certain health exceptions.
According to the AP report, which cites the Later Abortion Initiative by Ibis Reproductive health, fewer than 20 clinics perform abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy in the U.S. The number is not comprehensive because it does not include hospitals and a handful of other clinics.
“Currently, the group lists three clinics — in New Mexico, Maryland and Washington, D.C. — that provide services after 28 weeks,” according to the report. “Five others — in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington state — will consider patients depending on physician recommendations or fetal and maternal conditions.”
