After more than half a century, Dr. Warren Hern closed his Boulder abortion clinic on April 23, 2025, as announced via www.drhern.com. It’s hard to say what’s most frightening about Hern’s 55-year abortion career: his statements that human beings are a “planetary cancer” and pregnancy not different from disease (tinyurl.com/mtpewkjr); the 42,000 abortions he performed; the lawsuit over an abortion where Hern left part of a baby’s skull inside a woman from Nebraska (tinyurl.com/yw8dhsbw); the high prices he charged — $8,500 to $25,000 — while neglecting his clinic conditions or his exclusive focus on later-term abortions after 2020 (tinyurl.com/5ajt2pek, LA Times).
Many people tried to deny that abortions in Colorado occur after 21 weeks when giving testimony on House Bill 25-1252, which sought to require second and third trimester abortion clinics to have safety standards and inspections. But for the past four years, Hern admitted, those were the only kind of abortions he performed (tinyurl.com/5ajt2pek). The good news: Hern’s clinic is now closed. The bad news: Many frightening issues are occurring at the Fort Collins Planned Parenthood clinic this year with six abortion-injury investigations involving 911 ambulance-calls including: a “Charlie Medical” emergency (meaning possibly life-threatening”) on April 4 (tinyurl.com/3weh7a5u), a woman with a perforated uterus on Jan. 4, the death of an 18-year-old after a 22-week abortion on Feb. 6 (tinyurl.com/4bn6f9zf). That death is now under investigation by Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Agencies (see tinyurl.com/3sesbd63).
When asked a few months ago on the Michael Shermer Show if Hern ever performed abortions for women in their third trimester who had no medical problems but simply changed their minds, Hern responded, “It happens all the time.” His own scientific publication shows 70% of late-term abortions he performed were on healthy women with healthy babies (tinyurl.com/yc8a2uzk). Hern has also admitted to doing late abortions for any reason, including sex selection (tinyurl.com/yrazmayv). Hern revealed, “We have reached a point in this particular (abortion) technology where there is no possibility of denying an act of destruction. It is before one’s eyes. The sensations of dismemberment flow through the forceps like an electric current” (tinyurl.com/4rmhzpsh). The Nebraska woman suing Hern had to have a hysterectomy which ended her ability to have children (tinyurl.com/yw8dhsbw). Despite charging up to $25,000 for third-trimester abortions, Hern operated out of a 70-year-old building with plumbing issues, finicky water heater and an unstable foundation (tinyurl.com/5ajt2pek).
At the Fort Collins Planned Parenthood, six abortion injury investigations are underway, including the three incidents mentioned earlier. There are also three additional investigations involving ambulance calls on Feb. 24, March 19, and April 3 of this year. Those are only the six that were flagged because pro-life counselors witnessed the ambulance arrivals — and counselors are only present less than 50% of the hours that the Fort Collins Planned Parenthood clinic is open.
Common-sense safety standards and inspections could have an enormous impact on preventing situations leading to the six ambulance situations at Fort Collins Planned Parenthood. Did you know that Colorado tattoo parlors must comply with nine pages of regulations and Colorado birthing centers face 13 pages of strict licensing and safety requirements (see Code of Colorado Regulations at tinyurl.com/55kj3b46, and tinyurl.com/4ucpzx2c)? Yet efforts to request safety and inspection standards on second and third trimester abortion clinics in Colorado were blocked when Democrats killed House Bill 25-1252 this year on March 11.
If it frightens you because you feel women’s safety should be a higher priority than unfettered abortion access, you can contact the legislators that refused to permit abortion clinic safety standards and inspections to ask why tattoo parlors have them, but not second/third trimester abortion clinics. Their names and contact information are at tinyurl.com/544u26t7. Additionally, please sign the petition to defund Planned Parenthood at https://lc.org/lcemail/elc2502-pet-dpp. Why should unregulated Planned Parenthood clinics receive $700 million in annual federal funding?
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Lloyd Benes is a retired engineer and Loveland resident.
