In a recent episode of "The Michael Shermer Show," host Michael Shermer asked Colorado-based abortionist Hern whether he would perform abortions for women in their second or third trimester who have no medical conditions.
Hern answered: "Well, of course, if the woman doesn't want to be pregnant, there's no justification for forcing her to continue the pregnancy."
When Shermer sought further clarification, specifically asking about cases where no medical problem exists, Hern doubled down and declared that if she has no medical problems, then "the medical problem is that she's pregnant." (Related: Kamala Harris says she will continue to fight for abortion during concession speech.)
This has drawn sharp criticism, with opponents arguing that his statements dismantle the commonly cited justification for late-term abortions as being medically necessary. Pro-life advocate Casey Fiano-Chesser, writing for the anti-abortion nonprofit Live Action, claims that the practice disregards the moral and ethical implications of ending a viable human life.
"Hern's statement - 'the medical problem is that she's pregnant' - sums up the entire issue," Fiano-Chesser wrote in a report for Live Action. "Abortionists are not killing preborn babies because women need them due to medical emergencies. They're doing it, quite simply, because they can."
Hern's unapologetic stance is unlikely to surprise those familiar with his work. Having authored the textbook "Abortion Practice," which has been heralded by abortionists for how it goes into detail regarding late-term abortion procedures, Hern has long been forthright about the nature of his profession. Hern even compared the physical act of performing an abortion to experiencing "sensations of dismemberment" through surgical instruments in one of his writings.
In the past few years, medical professionals and pro-life organizations have consistently challenged the claim that abortion is necessary to save a mother's life. They consistently argue that advances in modern medicine allow doctors to address complications in pregnancy without resorting to ending the life of the unborn child.
"Abortion, the destruction of an innocent unborn baby, is always gravely immoral and never needed nor justifiable, including for alleged 'anomalies,' for which a fatally ill child could be treated with palliative care rather than brutally murdered," Calvin Freiburger of LifeSiteNews observed during the waning weeks of the presidential election.
"More than 50,000 abortions a year take place after 15 weeks (almost four months into pregnancy) and approximately 10,000 take place after 20 weeks (five months)," continued Freiburger. "Further, a 2013 report by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute admitted 'data suggests that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment,' and Hern's own published data found that 'fetal abnormalities' ranged from just a fifth to a third of his patients and that the most common of those 'abnormalities' was Down syndrome, a condition that is neither a death sentence nor even a guarantee of an unhappy life."
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