Dr. Warren Hern closes Boulder Abortion Clinic after 50 years
The clinic is one of the relatively few to perform third-trimester abortions. Colorado is one of nine states without a limit on how far into pregnancy doctors can perform an abortion.
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The Boulder Abortion Clinic, one of the relatively few options for third-trimester pregnancy terminations and a frequent target of anti-abortion demonstrators, has closed after 50 years.
Dr. Warren Hern, the clinic’s outspoken director, posted a message on the clinic’s website stating that he had wanted to step away from full-time practice for some time.
“When I have a patient, I can’t do anything else. Her safety and well-being is my priority,” the message said. “I must now leave this sacred commitment to others.”
Hern’s staff on Wednesday confirmed the clinic’s closure, but he could not be immediately reached for comment.
Most states have a limit on how far into pregnancy doctors can perform an abortion. Colorado is one of nine states without a limit, according to the Guttmacher Institute. A ballot initiative to add a 22-week limit in 2020 failed, with 59% of voters rejecting it.
Third-trimester abortions account for a small percentage of all terminations. Of the 14,691 abortions in Colorado in 2023, the most recent year with data, 73% happened at eight weeks or earlier. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported 137 abortions, or just under 1% of the total, at 28 weeks or later.
Hern said his procedure, if he determined it was safer for the woman to end the pregnancy than to continue carrying it, was to stop the fetus’s heart with an injection. The woman would then deliver the fetus, as if she’d had a stillbirth.
Some patients traveled to see Hern from as far as the East Coast, Australia and Europe after discovering severe birth defects late in their pregnancies. Women at average risk generally receive an ultrasound to check for anomalies 20 weeks into a roughly 40-week pregnancy.
As one of the relatively few places that perform third-trimester abortions, the clinic became a regular target for mostly peaceful, but sometimes violent, opposition to abortion. It had bullet-resistant windows since 1988, after a gunman fired five shots into the clinic.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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