Dr. Warren Hern has provided medical care to thousands of women from across the nation at his private clinic in Boulder since it opened in the ‘70s, but now he’s closing his doors.
“All of us who do this work have had increasing difficulty in being able to offer the services,” Hern said. “We can't continue, and it breaks my heart. But this is the way it is.”
Last week, Dr. Hern performed his final abortion procedure after more than 50 years in practice.
Prior to this month, the Denver native was one of the few doctors in the nation who provided abortions later in pregnancy. His practice offered the procedure up to 32 weeks.
According to the National Abortion Federation, with Hern’s retirement, there are 17 clinics in the country providing abortions after 24 weeks. Only three clinics offer the procedure after 30 weeks. The nearest to Boulder is 6.5 hours away in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“Women had to cross the country – thousands of miles – to get to my office and it became increasingly difficult to do that for lots of reasons,” he said.
Hern started out intending to be a public health physician with a focus in epidemiology. But when the Roe v. Wade decision came down in 1973, he was asked to help found the first nonprofit private abortion clinic in Colorado. After about a year, he knew he’d found his calling and opened his private practice.
One case from that time particularly sticks out to Hern as the moment he knew his work was needed.
“This one woman, who I remember quite vividly, with red hair was in her mid thirties when she came in,” he said. “As I was getting ready to do her first exam, she was just shaking uncontrollably. I said, ‘What's wrong? Tell me how you’re feeling?’ And she said, ‘Well, it's so different. You're a doctor. The lights are on. It's clean. The windows are open.’”
The woman told Dr. Hern that she’d had an illegal abortion in unsafe conditions. “Then she looked at me and she said, ‘Please don't ever stop doing this.’ So I didn't. But now I have to – and I don't like it, but that's the way it is.”
Before Roe v. Wade, many women sought illegal or “back alley” abortions from people with little official medical training, who practiced in unsanitary locations. It resulted in the deaths of many women in the 1960s and early 1970s.
During his decades in practice, Hern was often a target for abortion opponents; he regularly received death threats, and once had a man open fire through the doors of his clinic.
This week, Susan B. Anthony Prolife-America shared the news of the clinic’s closing under the heading “VICTORY,” calling it “a step forward in protecting unborn babies and their mothers from the violence of abortion.”
Why the practice is closing
Dr. Hern is retiring at the age of 86, but that’s not the only reason the practice is closing. Terminations later in pregnancy are an extremely costly procedure, and not always covered by insurance.
“In my practice, I’ve basically had an abortion intensive care unit, which requires very, very highly skilled professional medical people, nurses, counselors, physicians. That's an expensive process, and the patients – most of them – cannot pay the fees that are required to cover the cost of this,” Hern said. “The funding agencies have been very generous in many cases, but the funds are sort of drying up.”
Not only are funds running low, but so are the number of physicians who are able to perform the procedure. He was unable to reliably bring on a new practitioner.
There’s also challenges with out-of-state patients seeking help in Colorado, many of whom are traveling from red states where the procedure has been banned. Hern describes a perfect storm of circumstances.
“Republicans are even threatening to prosecute people for crossing state lines or even traveling to get an abortion. Also, the economy is crashing, and that makes it difficult for people to have jobs and to have money and to travel and it makes it difficult for philanthropic organizations to give money to those who want to help women,” Hern said.
With the clinic closing, Dr. Hern said he’s been referring women who call to the National Abortion Federation for help. But he worries that as tensions surrounding the procedure escalate, and more states make it illegal, women will be at a higher risk of dying.
Hern believes that laws being passed around the country will ultimately result in less access to healthcare. “I think we were making excellent progress in making (abortion) very, very safe. And now we'll be facing a situation where there are fewer and fewer people who are willing to risk their lives and do this work.”
“The great thing about democracy is that it works. The worst thing about democracy is that it works. It's illegal to help women who are pregnant. It's illegal, and you can't do it,” Hern said. “That's what the American people have voted for. So if they want to change that, they have to change the way they vote.”
The closure comes as the state works to shore up protections
On Thursday, Governor Jared Polis signed two bills surrounding abortion protections into law.
One ensures protections for doctors providing prescriptions for medical abortions, even for patients across state lines.
The other updates state laws to match new rules created by Amendment 79 which was approved by voters in the November election. The bill essentially removes a prohibition in the state constitution on using public money to pay for abortions and adds protections to the right to have an abortion in Colorado.
Both bills were backed by the Cobalt Abortion Fund, the state’s largest advocacy group for legal abortion.
"Boulder Abortion Clinic and its staff served many, many patients with critical health care needs over the years, and we appreciate their work,” said a Cobalt spokesperson in an emailed statement. “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."
“It's been a great privilege to do this, and I am very grateful to the people of Boulder and the people of Colorado for supporting the right of women to have safe abortions,” Hern said.
Dr. Hern told CPR News that after he finishes closing the clinic he plans to anonymize and publish a collection of messages he’s received from his patients over the years. “I have thousands of beautiful letters from patients. I want the public to hear the voices of women. And so that's my next big project.”
