OPINION:
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade has come an increasing flow of disturbing pro-choice rhetoric, unsettling attacks on pregnancy centers — and some macabre revelations.
The long-gone “safe, legal and rare” mantra has morphed into a “defend abortion at all costs” marching order, with a guttural reaction to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision exposing some progressives’ unrestrained views about abortion.
For quite some time, supporters of abortion access seemed to agree that fewer abortions being performed was better, though the “shout your abortion” rhetoric a few years back appeared to break a seal of sorts, paving the way to more boisterous — even celebratory — language in some of the fringe corners.
But perhaps none of those shifts could have prepared me for a recent interview that The Atlantic’s Elaine Godfrey conducted with Dr. Warren Hern, an 84-year-old Colorado abortion provider who is one of the few physicians willing to perform late-term procedures even 30 weeks into a pregnancy.
Let’s explore a few of the most disturbing, concerning and shocking elements in the piece.
Dr. Hern’s take on late-term abortions
Pro-choice activists often claim that the only reason a woman would seek a late-term abortion is due to fetal abnormalities or a threat to her life. With data sparse on the matter — and some studies indicating this isn’t necessarily true — Ms. Godfrey’s article is certainly eye-opening.
“Many of the women who visit Hern’s clinic do so because their health is at risk — or because their fetus has a serious abnormality that would require a baby to undergo countless surgeries with little chance of survival,” she wrote. “But Hern does not restrict his work to these cases.”
Later, she added, “Hern estimates that at least half, and sometimes more, of the women who come to the clinic” don’t have “devastating medical diagnoses.” Dr. Hern takes teen patients who didn’t know they were pregnant until late into a pregnancy, among others.
At least one woman whose husband had killed himself also sought a late-term abortion. But it doesn’t end there. When Dr. Hern was pressed on whether he would perform an abortion on a woman 30 weeks pregnant with no underlying medical crisis, he said” “Every pregnancy is a health issue! There’s a certifiable risk of death from being pregnant, period.”
Dr. Hern on viability
Viability — or the gestational age at which a child could survive outside the mother’s womb — is a major fixture and point of contention in the abortion debate, as most doctors presumably wouldn’t perform a procedure past that line.
But Dr. Hern said viability is tied to something far more unsettling and shocking: “a woman’s willingness to carry” a baby, Ms. Godfrey wrote.
The abortion provider’s litmus test for readiness to perform the abortion is whether he believes it’s safer to have an abortion than deliver the baby.
That’s a remarkable public admission, assuming the presentation in the story is precise, and the quotes and details properly reflect his beliefs on the matter.
The cost of abortion
Ms. Godfrey also described overhearing the receptionist at Dr. Hern’s clinic fielding calls from women. At one point, the clinic staffer told someone on the phone the fee would be “about $6,000.”
While the article notes some organizations sometimes step in to help fund the procedure and that Dr. Hern has been known to pitch in to cover some of the costs of hotel, transportation or even the procedure for those who lack financial resources, the figure is shocking.
At the very least, it raises major questions about the monetary elements of these procedures and how women find the funds to pay for them. But it’s particularly alarming in light of claims that these abortions aren’t limited to medical crises.
Worship of the creation
Dr. Hern shared some personal elements surrounding his worldview, including the idea he’s “spiritual” but not religious. The abortion doctor called the “natural world” and the “forest” his “cathedral,” stating it is a “spiritual experience” to see the sunrise or a wild animal.
Juxtaposing his apparent love for nature against the backdrop of his career choice — ending the lives of the unborn — is heartbreaking.
The miraculous nature of conception and the growth and birth of a child is undoubtedly one of the greatest pieces of evidence of the Lord’s workmanship and his love for mankind.
And yet, this miracle has been pushed to the side in place of the “spiritual” nature of other nonhuman elements of creation. It’s a stunning reminder of what the Apostle Paul writes about in Romans 1:25 (NIV): “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised.”
Human beings are set apart from all God’s creation, yet, for Dr. Hern, the Bible’s advice is mere muck. Noting that Scripture says to “go forth and multiply and dominate the Earth and blah-blah,” he told Ms. Godfrey that “that is exactly the wrong advice.”
The devastating reality that a person can see beauty in the animals and patterns of the sun while simultaneously destroying the life of an unborn human being should send us all to our knees in prayer for a changed heart and mind.
Tragically, Dr. Hern shared how he once had visions that would awaken him of a fetus with its heart beating — but those images eventually vanished, sending him on his continued, decadeslong abortion journey.
Now, the remaining nightmares are reserved for the unborn babies undergoing the unthinkable and the tattered lives of their mothers and fathers who have been misled to believe their children’s destruction is the best path forward.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” He is the author of four books, including “Playing With Fire: A Modern Investigation into Demons, Exorcism, and Ghosts” and “The Armageddon Code: One Journalist’s Quest for End-Times Answers.”
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