Warren Martin Hern, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. (born 1938) is an American physician best known for performing late-term abortions. In 1973, he founded Boulder Abortion Clinic in Boulder, Colorado. Hern was a founding member of the National Abortion Federation, and authored Abortion Practice, a comprehensive text on operating and evaluating abortion facilities. He and doctors LeRoy Carhart, Shelley Sella, and Susan Robinson were the subject of the 2013 documentary After Tiller about the four openly-advertising late-term abortion providers in the United States after the 2009 assassination of George Tiller.
Background
Hern took his B.A. at the University of Colorado, in 1961. He triple-majored in Speech, Anthropology, and Chemistry. He attended medical school at University of Colorado, taking his M.D. in 1965. He took his M.P.H. degree at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, in 1971, and his Ph.D. in epidemiology from the same school in 1988.
He has been board certified in Preventive Medicine since 1978.
In 1973, Hern was asked to help found a private, non-profit abortion clinic in Boulder, Colorado. After his position was eliminated, Hern entered into private practice, creating the Boulder Abortion Clinic in 1975.
Academic appointments
Hern holds the following academic appointments
- Professor Adjunct, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder
- Associate Professor Adjunct, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Colorado at Denver
- Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Obstetrics Gynecology
- Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Family Practice
- Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics: University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Non-abortion work
Hern travels regularly to Peru, where he works as a volunteer providing medical care to the Shipibo tribe.
Violence against Hern and his clinic
Hern's clinic has been the target of numerous vandalisms and threats, including gunshots fired through his office window. He has been stalked and threatened. His family has been threatened as well.
Solidarity with George Tiller
Hern expressed outrage over the May 31, 2009 killing of George Tiller, a doctor who offered similar services, in Wichita. In the aftermath of Tiller's murder, Hern's clinic has continued to receive threats.
Published works
- Hern, Warren M. (1984). Abortion Practice. J. B. Lippincott. p. 340. ISBN 978-0-9625728-0-7. Because of anti-abortion threats and harassment, Lippincott took the book out of print in 1989 and destroyed several hundred copies of the hardcover edition. Dr. Hern subsequently obtained the copyright, formed a publishing company (Alpenglo Graphics), and published a soft cover edition of Abortion Practice in order to keep the book available to those who need it.
References
External links
- Biography of Warren Hern, M.D. at Boulder Abortion Clinic website
- Did I Violate the Partial Birth Abortion Ban? by Warren Hern, Slate, Oct. 22, 2003.
- The Last Abortion Doctor by John H. Richardson, "Esquire" Aug. 5, 2009.
