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Media promotes abortionist while describing preborn as ‘clots of phlegm’

Icon of a magnifying glassAnalysis·By Cassy Cooke

Media promotes abortionist while describing preborn as ‘clots of phlegm’

Late-term abortionist Warren Hern was profiled in a recent article for The Atlantic, interviewed by Elaine Godfrey. At the beginning of the article, Godfrey wrote that Hern told her, “A baby is a fetus until it is ‘born alive.'” Further on, Godfrey added to the dehumanization, writing:

During the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, when about 90 percent of abortions in America are carried out, the fetus’s appearance ranges from a small clot of phlegm to an alienlike ball of flesh.

This is a photo posted on Reddit by a woman — identifying herself as pro-abortion — who had an abortion at nine weeks. Far from looking like a “clot of phlegm” or an “alienlike ball of flesh,” it is a clearly recognizable baby.

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Reddit user BackgroundPea7785’s photo of aborted baby at 9 weeks gestation (enlarged).

Furthermore, Hern is correct that a preborn baby is a ‘fetus’ until it is born. But this has no bearing on the child’s humanity; it is merely a descriptor for a specific stage in human development, much like embryo, newborn, toddler, or teenager. It says nothing about the humanity of the child, which — based on all basic biological principles — is alive.

At the moment of fertilization, even as a single-celled organism, she already has her own unique DNA, with traits like sex, hair color, eye color, and countless more already determined. In just three weeks, her heart begins beating; brain waves can be recorded just a few weeks later. By nine weeks, an MRI can show substantial development, with a brain, lungs, and heart, arms and legs, fingers, and toes all present. She can even suck her thumb.

Thumbnail for Nine Weeks Pregnant

Godfrey acknowledged that Hern largely commits abortions on preborn children much later in pregnancy, often after they are capable of surviving outside of the womb. She failed to point out that Hern charges as much as $25,000 for one abortion, committing them in a facility which, as described by the New York Times in a profile from last year, is replete with “plumbing problems, finicky water heater, and uneven clay foundation.” Yet Hern himself resides in luxury, enjoying a “stunning mountain vista framed by the front window of his living room. His wildlife photography covered the walls surrounding his gleaming grand piano.”

It’s clear: for Hern, abortions pays. And regardless of what he claims, the reality is that abortion will always be the business of intentionally taking innocent preborn lives.

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