Dr. Warren M. Hern, MD, MPH, PhD

Expert Publications

• Laminaria, induced fetal demise and misoprostol in late abortion.
• Laminaria in abortion. Use in 1368 patients in first trimester.
• The illness parameters of pregnancy.
• How Roe v. Wade has shaped my life and work.
• Has the human species become a cancer on the planet? A theoretical view of population growth as a sign of pathology.
• Cultural change, polygyny, and fertility among the Shipibo of the Peruvian Amazon.
• High fertility in a Peruvian Amazon Indian village.
• First and second trimester abortion techniques.
• Cervical treatment with Dilapan prior to second trimester dilation and evacuation abortion: a pilot study of 64 patients.
• Health and economics in West Africa.
• Selective termination for fetal anomaly/genetic disorder in twin pregnancy at 32+ menstrual weeks. Report of four cases.
• Misoprostol as an adjunctive medication in late surgical abortion.
• Health and demography of native Amazonians: historical perspective and current status.
• The evidence-based review of second-trimester abortion missed some important evidence.
• Individual fertility rate: a new individual fertility measure for small populations.

Media Releases

Get to know  Dr. Warren M. Hern, who serves patients in Boulder, Colorado.

Dr. Hern is a physician and epidemiologist who specializes in late abortion for fetal anomaly, genetic disorder and other medical complications of pregnancy who is currently serving patients at Boulder Abortion Clinic in Boulder, Colorado. “Our purpose is to provide the safest possible abortion care and termination of pregnancies for fetal anomalies or other medical indications. Abortion care is always provided in a confidential, comfortable, and dignified outpatient setting for women worldwide” as stated on the medical practice’s website. By its name and continued existence, Boulder Abortion Clinic makes a statement that women are free to make their own choices about their own lives, bodies, and family needs. 

Dr. Hern earned his medical degree from the University of Colorado in 1965 and served a rotating internship at Gorgas Hospital in the Canal Zone from 1965-1966.  During his internship, he focused on tropical disease pathology, urology, general surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. He became bilingual in Spanish and Portuguese.  

From 1966-68, Dr. Hern served as a Peace Corps Physician in Bahia, Brazil on his assignment as Senior Surgeon, US Public Health Service.  From 1968-69, he studied public health, specializing in epidemiology, at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, earning his Master of Public Health degree in 1971.  In early 1970, Dr. Hern was recruited to serve as Chief, Program Development and Evaluation Branch, Family Planning Division in the Office of Economic Opportunity (“War on Poverty”) in Washington. D.C.  He served in this capacity developing family planning programs for poor women and their families throughout the nation from 1970-72. Dr. Hern resigned his position in June, 1972 because of the White House suppression of the OEO Sterilization Guidelines that he prepared to protect poor women from sterilization abuse.  On July 10, 1973, Dr. Hern testified before Senator Kennedy and the U.S. Senate Health Subcommittee in hearings concerning the suppression of OEO Sterilization Guidelines and the Relf sterilization case in Alabama.  

In 1972, Dr. Hern returned home to Colorado to serve as a consultant for national and international family planning programs. In 1973, following the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion, he was asked to help found Colorado’s first free-standing nonprofit abortion clinic. Since November 1973, Dr. Hern has specialized in outpatient abortion services full-time in Colorado. In January 1975, he opened his private medical practice, Boulder Abortion Clinic.  Dr. Hern receives patients for late termination of pregnancy referred from a wide variety of private practitioners, clinics, teaching hospitals, perinatal specialists and genetic counseling services throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia and other regions. Staff members of Boulder Abortion Clinic are fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Swedish, Japanese, Arabic and American Sign Language.  

Since 1971, Dr. Hern has been the author of dozens of medical journal articles, editorials, invited book chapters, and many other publications concerning abortion and other aspects of human fertility. He is the author of Abortion Practice, the first and only single-author medical textbook concerning abortion, which was first published in 1984 and remains in print to this day.

Since 1964, Dr. Hern has studied the health effects of cultural change and the effects of cultural change on fertility among the Shipibo Indians of the Peruvian Amazon Basin.  His Ph.D. dissertation, “Polygyny and fertility among the Shipibo: An epidemiological test of an ethnographic hypothesis,” is the first and principal study of the effects of cultural change on fertility in a Native Amazonian society.  Original research from this study has been published in various books and scientific journals devoted to ethnography, population studies, and Native Amazonian societies. Dr. Hern received his Doctor of Philosophy in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health in 1988. 

In 2002, Dr. Hern received the Christopher Tietze Humanitarian Award from the National Abortion Federation for his advancement of quality care in abortion services. Later in 2002, he also received the Carl S. Schulz Award from the Population, Family Planning, and Reproductive Health Section of the American Public Health Association for his scientific contributions and defense of reproductive freedom.  His work has also been recognized by the Colorado Women’s Political Caucus, the National Organization for Women, and NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado.

Dr. Hern is board-certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine.   The American Board of Preventive Medicine was established to promote the health and safety of the American people through our high standards in the certification and maintenance of certification in the profession of preventive health.

Dr. Hern was the President of the International Society of Abortion Doctors from 1996 until 1998. He was also Chair of the Population, Family Planning, and Reproductive Health Section of the American Public Health Association from 1994-1995. 

“I have been personally involved from the beginning of my medical career in the advocacy of reproductive freedom, and I continue in this commitment” as stated by Dr. Hern. 

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