Abortion in the Age of Unreason: A Doctor's Account of Caring for Women Before and After Roe v. Wade (book cover)

In his new book Abortion in the Age of Unreason: A Doctor’s Account of Caring for Women Before and After Roe v. Wade, a nationally prominent doctor reports the daily challenges of offering and receiving abortion services in a volatile political and social atmosphere. In stories from the front lines–from protecting patients and staff from protesters’ attacks to the dangers to women of restricted access to abortion services, and the pertinent findings of his remote research in Latin America, Hern’s book is strikingly detailed just as it exposes the needs of women and the U.S. national interest. Dr. Hern–an abortion specialist, researcher, scholar, and highly visible public advocate – shows how abortion saves women’s lives given the many risks that arise during pregnancy, more than most people realize. He points to political and national solutions to reverse a reawakened crisis that now threatens democracy. Throughout the book, Dr. Hern shows how the current emergency was largely created by political actors who have exploited and distorted the abortion issue to increase and consolidate their power.

A vital component of women’s health care, the crisis over abortion is not new. Yet the reversal of Roe v. Wade and the steady accumulation of power by America’s right wing has put the issue at a level of urgency and national prominence not seen since the days before legalization. Women’s need for safe abortion services will continue as the struggle to secure their rights intensifies.

Warren M. Hern, M.D., is known to the public through his many appearances on CNN, Rachel Maddow/MSNBC, Sixty Minutes, and in the pages of The Atlantic magazine, The New York Times, Washington Post, and dozens more media. A scientist, Hern wrote about the need for safe abortion services before the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and was present at the first Supreme Court arguments. In his research and medical work, he pioneered since 1973 the modern safe practice of early and late abortion in his highly influential books and scholarship. A tireless national activist for women’s reproductive rights, he is an adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and holds a clinical appointment in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado medical center. He holds doctorates in medicine and epidemiology. His book is Abortion in the Age of Unreason: A Doctor’s Account of Caring for Women Before and After Roe v. Wade.

Shermer and Hern discuss:

How and why he became an abortion doctor
Age of Unreason: Crusades, Inquisition, Witch hunts, pogroms against Jews, slavery, genocide and ethnocide, McCarthyism
Abortions pre-Roe going back centuries
Abortions after Roe
Late term abortion, Partial birth abortion, Abortion on demand
What exactly is involved in an abortion: walk us through the procedure
Protests, death threats and violence against abortion doctors and clinics
Fetal personhood and when life begins
Weighted risks of abortion vs. pregnancy.

Show Notes

According to the CDC, the number of abortions in the United States in 2021 was 625,978
Women in their 20s accounted for more than half of abortions, higher for minority women, over half performed medication (mifepristone & misoprostol) at ≤9 weeks’ gestation (53.0%)
Guttmacher Institute: 930,160 abortions in 2020. Decline:
744k in 1973, 1.25m in 1975, 1.6m in 1990, 1.25m in 2005, 930,160 in 2020
14.4/1,000 women (compare homicide rate of 5.9/100,000 people)
Abortion providers: 2,908 in 1982, 1603 in 2020
87% unmarried women (CDC)
Black: 42%, 30% White, 22% Hispanic, 6% other races
Second abortions: 24%; Third abortions: 11%; 4th abortion: 8%
93% of abortions in the 1st trimester, at or before 13 weeks of gestation
6% between 14-20 weeks of pregnancy; 1% at 21 weeks or more.

Why women get abortions—2013 study “Understanding Why Women Seek Abortions in the US” (BMC Women’s Health Antonia Biggs, Heather Gould, Diana Greene Foster):

Financial (40%)
Timing (36%)
Partner-related reasons (31%)
Need to focus on other children (29%)

The top three reason categories cited in both studies were: 1) “Having a baby would dramatically change my life” (i.e., interfere with education, employment and ability to take care of existing children and other dependents) (74% in 2004 and 78% in 1987), 2) “I can’t afford a baby now” (e.g., unmarried, student, can’t afford childcare or basic needs) (73% in 2004 and 69% in 1987), and 3) “I don’t want to be a single mother or am having relationship problems” (48% in 2004 and 52% in 1987). A sizeable proportion of women in 2004 and 1987 also reported having completed their childbearing (38% and 28%), not being ready for a/another child (32% and 36%), and not wanting people to know they had sex or became pregnant (25% and 33%)

What about medical problems with the woman or the fetus? Lozier Institute 2024 study:

Rape and incest: 0.4%
Risk to the woman’s life or a major bodily function: 0.3%
Other physical health concerns: 2.2%
Abnormality in the unborn baby: 1.2%
Elective and unspecified reasons: 95.9%

Worldwide (Guttmacher Institute):

121 million unintended pregnancies occurred each year between 2015 and 2019
Of these unintended pregnancies, 61% ended in abortion. This translates to 73 million abortions per year

Americans’ Self-ID on Abortion, 2024 (Gallup):

Pro-choice: 54%, Pro-life: 41%
Men: 45% pro-choice/49% pro-life; Women: 63% pro-choice/33% pro-life
Republican: 23% pro-choice/69% pro-life; Democrat: 86% pro-choice/12% pro-life; Independent: 52% pro-choice/41% pro-life

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