On the night of the debate – when late-term abortions would again be dismissed as a phony issue – NBC Nightly News ran a promotional piece about Colorado late-term abortionist Warren Hern, who has been a radical pro-abortion crank for 50 years.
Lester Holt began: “And tonight we visit one state where women are traveling to obtain a rare and often misunderstood form of the procedure later in pregnancy.” It’s “often misunderstood” when you kill a baby in utero with an injection to the heart and then remove the corpse.
Reporter Dasha Burns promoted abortion in this one-sided piece, focused on the "emotional experience" of women seeking abortions:
BURNS: Dr. Hern says his clinic doesn't perform abortions in the eighth or ninth month and they're extraordinarily rare across the country. Just one percent of abortions are performed after 21 weeks. He tells us he doesn't want to do this work, but unforeseen circumstances create a need for it and that strict abortion bans in red states are partly to blame for an increase in patients seeking him out because it's taking them longer to find care.
Hern was killing fully-formed babies when Roe vs. Wade was still the law. On screen, NBC says "Abortions Later In Pregnancy Exceedingly Rare." Their source was the Centers for Disease Control. In 2015, they found 1.3 percent of abortions came after 21 weeks. Their number of reported abortions was 638,169 -- 1.3 percent of that total is 8,296.
Now compare that to the Washington Post finding on the number of unarmed black men killed by police in 2019. It was 13. Anyone think NBC would tout that as "exceedingly rare"?
In an article touting Hern last year in The Atlantic – titled “The Abortion Absolutist” – writer Elaine Godfrey revealed “Hern ends the pregnancies of women who are 22, 25, even 30 weeks along.” And worse:
“I put my baby down,” Kate Carson, who’d gotten an abortion at Hern’s clinic in 2012, told me. She’d been 35 weeks into a much-wanted pregnancy when her doctor diagnosed multiple brain anomalies.
The only fraction of opposition was a seven-second Fox News soundbite of Donald Trump saying "the Democrats are radical" on late-term abortion.
Burns focused the whole story by projecting all late-term abortion seekers in the most positive light: “Hern says many of the women who come here are dealing with very wanted pregnancies that have gone very wrong. Like the family that wrote him this letter.” Hern read it: "There are no words or gifts that can say thank you enough for what you've done for our family." You've reduced it.
If you have a large enough TV, you can see it actually begins: “To the angels at the Boulder Abortion Clinic.” Ugh.
Naturally, Burns found the Dr. Hern fans, no full names needed: “We visited that family at their home in Texas, where abortion is banned except in limited cases to save a woman's life or health. In 2023, they received a tragic diagnosis 24 weeks into their pregnancy. A severe fetal anomaly, and possible consequences for Emma's future fertility.” Emma said it was “the best decision for our family, to have an abortion.” Now they have a baby boy. That offers maximum propaganda value. NBC loves this angle!
Burns wrapped up the puff piece like this:
BURNS: As abortion remains a top political issue in 2024, Dr. Hern vows to keep going. [To Hern] Why do you do this work?
HERN: Because it matters. It matters for the health of the woman. It matters for their families. It matters for our society. And now it matters for freedom.
BURNS: Dasha Burns, NBC News, Boulder, Colorado.
