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YANG: At every pivotal moment
of the fight over legalized
abortion in the United States,

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Dr. Warren Hern has been on the
frontline. Heús run a Boulder,
Colorado clinic providing

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abortion services since 1973,
the year Roe vs. Wade was
decided. Tonight, we get Dr.

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Hernús brief but spectacular
take on his nearly
half-century of specializing
in abortion services.

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DR. WARREN HERN, BOULDER
ABORTION CLINIC: There
was a particular case I
remember quite well. She

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had red hair, she was in
her early 30s, and she
was shaking. And I said
to her, "Whatús wrong?"

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She said, "Itús so different.
Youúre a doctor. The lights are
on. Itús clean. The windows are

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open." Then she told me
about her illegal abortion
that she had which was
the most terrifying and

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humiliating experience of
her life. Then she said,
"Donút ever stop doing
this." And so, I didnút.

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In my third year of
medical school, my first
clinical rotation was
on obstetrics. I was

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taught to deliver babies,
and I loved it. It was a very
joyous occasion for most of

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the women. On the other hand,
we had women who were in a
great deal of emotional pain.

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They were very much alone.
My next rotation was on the
gynecology ward taking care of

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women who were desperately sick
and about to die, and I learned
that it was because theyúd

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had an illegal, unsafe abortion.
This was in the early 60s
before abortion was legal.

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And one of the things
that I learned about was
that the death rate due to

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unsafe abortion for black
women was nine times higher
than it was for white women,

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and thousands of women were
dying each year. So this
was a public health issue,

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a social justice issue as a
matter of great anguish and
suffering for individual women.

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The Roe vs. Wade case came
down in 1973. I thought
that implementing the
Supreme Court decision

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Roe vs. Wade was very
important. It didnút mean
anything if doctors werenút
doing the abortions.

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I became convinced that
performing abortions was
the most important thing
I could do in medicine.

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When I opened my practice,
I wanted women to be
able to know that they
could walk in with their

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hat on and have a safe abortion
and that was the purpose, that
our commitment was to that.

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Two weeks after the abortion
clinic opened in Colorado
in November of 1973,

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I started getting obscene
death threats in the middle
of the night and I started

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sleeping with a rifle by my
bed. That was 49 years ago.
And really nothing has changed.

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There were five shots
fired through the front
of my office with a high
power rifle, one of the

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bullets just missed a member of
my staff. These people will stop
at nothing and they will accept

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any level of violence
to impose their views on
other people. This is a
violent fascist movement.

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Overturning Roe versus
Wade is a very significant
decision in American
judicial history because

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this is the first case
where a right given to
the women of this country
has been taken away by the

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Supreme Court. A woman
who is pregnant deserves
the best medical care she
can get, regardless of

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whether she wants to
continue the pregnancy
and have a baby, or she
wants to end the pregnancy.

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Women will have abortions
whether theyúre safe or
not and whether theyúre
legal or not. There is no

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justification whatsoever
for forcing a woman to
carry a pregnancy to term
against her will. None.

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I am Dr. Warren Hern, and this
is my brief but spectacular take

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on specializing in abortion
services for 49 years.