WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — While the abortion lobby and its political allies continue to insist that late-term abortions are virtually nonexistent, Students for Life has captured notorious abortionist Curtis Boyd eagerly offering advice on facilitating an abortion as late as eight months into pregnancy.
SFLAction’s Savanna Deretich attended a book signing by Boyd and his wife Glenna Halvorson-Boyd, who is also an abortionist. Recording the conversation with a hidden camera, she asked them about a nonexistent friend who sought assistance to abort a child at eight months, and the two were only too happy to help.
Boyd, who is retired from committing abortions himself, offered to give her a name of a “very good” abortionist in the D.C. area, Matthew Reeves, and said she could tell Reeves she was referred by Boyd, which would help get his attention and ensure she “get good, good care.”
At eight months, Halvorson-Boyd added, “it does become a question of does the physician feel that she or he can do this safely. So there’s no guarantee” that Reeves would be able to carry out the abortion.
Boyd only raised the question of whether the friend “has any medical issues,” such as a “potential defect or something like that” in the context of whether the abortion would fall past what Reeves was able to do. In that case, he suggested seeking out infamous late-term abortionist Warren Hern in Colorado as the “only one left” who is willing to “stretch” the limit past 8 months. If need be, Boyd offered to call Hern personally on the girl’s behalf.
Later on, Boyd concluded that the friend should not “waste time” calling Reeves in Washington and advised getting a sonogram to determine exactly how old her baby is before going straight to Hern. He concluded by giving Deretich a signed book with the contact information and expressed regret that he could not commit the abortion himself, because his facility is closed and “I don’t have the hands to do it anymore.”
“During the entire conversation, I felt sick,” Deretich said later. “So many lives have been cruelly taken because of this Bonnie and Clyde abortion duo, dedicated to offering death to women’s children under the guise of ‘loving care,’” she continued, adding that they have “physically and mentally scarred countless women.”
SFL also obtained another video, in which another staffer attempted to get Boyd on the record about abortion policy.
“I looked across the room and saw smiles on everyone’s faces as he described his experience, committing an abortion on a 16-year-old girl in the 70s when this was still an illegal practice,” SFL’s Zach Sprouse said. “He talked about how he changed her life. He was proud of his profession and admitted to enjoying what he does.”
“When I asked my question about why they did not require an ultrasound for a chemical abortion and the risk of ectopic pregnancies, he stated that we no longer require ultrasounds to identify ectopic pregnancies,” he continued. “Therefore, it is unnecessary, and they can discover the ectopic pregnancies in other ways. When asked about why Rh-negative women are not administered RhoGAM shots after chemical abortions to prevent the risk of future infertility, he said that it is no longer an issue and that women are not at risk of infertility in this scenario.”
“The abortion industry’s cavalier actions in removing recommendations for ultrasound and Rh testing/RhoGAM provision prior to first trimester medication abortion provision, based on very little evidence, demonstrates conclusively that they are willing to risk the lives and future fertility of women in their goal of readily accessible self-managed abortion,” responded Dr. Ingrid Skop of the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute.
“The stakes are high – ruptured ectopic pregnancy is the leading cause of maternal death in the first trimester, and Rh isoimmunization can lead to severe complications for future children, including brain damage and death,” she added. “Injured women and children are the collateral damage those who promote abortion are willing to accept in pursuit of their ideologic goals.”
The videos undermine the dominant media narrative that late-term abortions are all but impossible and unheard-of or are done only for extreme “medical” complications for the mother or the child – neither of which, as pro-lifers note, make abortion either medically necessary or morally justifiable.
In fact, more than 50,000 abortions a year take place after 15 weeks (almost four months into pregnancy) and approximately 10,000 after 20 weeks (five months), with published data even from pro-abortion sources acknowledging that the majority of those cases do not cite alleged “medical” reasons. Further, Democratic politicians such as Vice President and presidential nominee Kamala Harris and activist groups such as Planned Parenthood Action Fund and NARAL consistently oppose late-term abortion bans even with exceptions for so-called “health” reasons.
Pro-life laws have substantially reduced the number of surgical abortions in the two years since Roe was overturned, but the White House and the abortion lobby have been working feverishly to cancel out those deterrent effects through a variety of strategies. Among them are the distribution of abortion pills across state lines, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, placing abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, and embedding abortion “rights” in state constitutions.