Esquire Magazine Profiles Abortion Provider Hern

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 10 Aug 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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In a profile appearing in the September issue of Esquire magazine, Colorado abortion provider Warren Hern said that he believes the murder of Kansas provider George Tiller was a consequence of 35 years of "hate speech" against abortion providers. Hern also said that he has been receiving death threats for nearly 40 years.

According to Hern, he started receiving hateful and threatening messages when he first began working in family planning in 1970, and the threats continued in 1973 when he participated in the launch of the first not-for-profit abortion clinic in Boulder, Colo. Hern and Tiller have been two of the few abortion providers in the country who were publicly forthcoming about their work in providing the procedure later in pregnancy.

Hern said that he named his clinic the Boulder Abortion Clinic in an effort to eliminate the secrecy around the procedure, adding that abortion should not be clandestine. He said that he has been treated differently by other physicians and even some of his own patients, adding that he hates the term "abortionist" because it has become a "degrading and demeaning word that has the same negative connotations as the most despicable racial epithet." According to Hern, providing abortion services is the most significant work he can do as a physician because women's lives depend on how the procedure is performed (Esquire, September 2009).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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