The Last Abortion Doctor?

Update: After publishing this critique of Esquire's story, "The Last Abortion Doctor", we received a response from its author, John H. Richardson, viewable in the comments section below. In his comment, Richardson took issue with the critique, arguing that "it is a black irony when someone attacks you for getting facts wrong by getting her own facts wrong" and noting that in Nebraska, where Carhart practices, only 29 late-term abortions were performed in 2008. "I don't see how anyone could describe this as 'specializing' in late-term abortions, which is probably why the quote Kliff cites ('the notion that Dr. Warren Hern is the last remaining late-abortion provider is not accurate') does not use the word "specialize," he writes. (Article continued below...)

Warren Hern, the subject of Esquire's story, also responded to NEWSWEEK's piece in the form of a letter addressed to its author, Sarah Kliff. His letter, which is excerpted below with his permission, addresses both the profile of him in Esquire as well as NEWSWEEK's critique of it:
I…appreciate your article, "The Last Abortion Doctor – How 'Esquire' Got It Wrong." There were many things about that [Esquire] article that disturbed me starting with the preposterous and inflammatory title, which is not true and which, from my point of view, invites assassination to say the least. Another was the continued and obsessive reference to me as "the abortionist" throughout the article, a term which, as noted by the author, I detest and which I find profoundly offensive. [Editor's note: NEWSWEEK also used the term "abortionists" on the magazine's cover this week.] The writer obviously did not respect my point of view. He admitted to me in an exchange of email message that his purpose was to show a person behind this hideous word. I replied that I did not agree with being used for that agenda. There are a lot of things wrong with this article, in my opinion, and those are only three of them.

In the aftermath of Dr. Tiller's assassination, which was a grievous shock to me as to his family, other friends and colleagues, I often found myself being quoted in the press as saying things that I did not say. One of them was the remark erroneously attributed to me that I am the "only doctor in the world" who does late abortions. I never said that, and I know it is not true. It is true that, when asked by at least one reporter if I could identify other doctors who do abortions in pregnancies as advanced as I do them, I replied that I did not know, I could not speak for other physicians, and that if I did know I would not identify anyone for security reasons. I knew for years that Dr. Carhart worked with Tiller as did other doctors, and I assumed that they did the procedures that were performed in his clinic. I do not presume to speak for other physicians, and this was construed by some to mean that I think I am the only physician who does this." (Updated August 19, 2009)

"For thirty-six years Warren Hern has been one of the few doctors in America to specialize in late abortions ... And when Dr. Tiller was murdered that Sunday in church, Warren Hern became the only one left."

Those sentences, from this month’s issue of Esquire, introduce the magazine's profile of late-term abortion provider Warren Hern. They're surprising and intriguing, the beginning of a story I definitely want to read. But unfortunately, they're not true. Warren Hern is not the country's last late-term abortion doctor.

I know this because I've spent the last three months profiling another late-term abortion provider, LeRoy Carhart. Carhart used to work in the clinic of George Tiller, the late-term provider murdered in May, and is now training other abortion doctors in late-term procedures. I don't see how Carhart wouldn't be counted among the country's late-term specialists: he operates in the second and third trimester, worked at Tiller's clinic for more than a decade, and is trying to open a new late-term clinic in the Midwest.