Time magazine has released its annual list of the selected “100 Most Influential People,” and on the list is Julie Burkhart, an owner of multiple abortion facilities who was mentored by late-term abortionist George Tiller.
In the article, Time presents Burkhart as a brave warrior fighting on behalf of women. “Julie Burkhart has been fighting for decades to provide abortions in some of the most rural and conservative areas of the U.S.,” the write-up by Time correspondent Charlotte Alter began, before noting that one of her facilities is located in Illinois — one of the most pro-abortion states in the country. Alter concluded, “Burkhart is devoted to making sure patients can get abortion care, no matter where they live.”
Here is the reality of Julie Burkhart — and her history of abortion advocacy — that Time didn’t mention.
Mentored by George Tiller
Late-term abortionist George Tiller was murdered in 2009, shot at point-blank range while he was at his church. Since then, the abortion industry has nearly deified Tiller, portraying him as a saintly person who spent his life helping women — not as someone who was, in reality, committing illegal abortions and covering up child rape.
Burkhart, a long-time abortion activist, met Tiller in 2001. While she wasn’t an abortionist, Tiller took it upon himself to mentor her, teaching her how to operate an abortion facility. She began working directly for Tiller, managing his public affairs until his death. At that point, she opened the “Trust Women Foundation” in his name, which works to create abortion facilities across the country.
The late abortionist George Tiller
Shoddy facilities
Time did not mention the history of the abortion facilities Burkhart runs. Her Illinois facility, the Hope Clinic for Women, has a long history of injuring women. Though Illinois state law technically only allows abortions up to the arbitrary and subjective state of “viability” (considered widely to be 24 weeks gestation though children have survived when born as early as 21 weeks), the Hope Clinic advertises abortions as late as 27 weeks and six days — an age when the overwhelming majority of preborn children can survive outside the womb.
Screenshot: Hope Clinic, Granite City, IL
At this facility, emergencies have become so common that 911 dispatchers have seemingly stopped asking any questions about the injuries the women are suffering prior to sending emergency personnel. Whether this is because they have become accustomed to it or because they are aiding in the concealment of abortion injuries from the public is not clear.
Similar injuries have taken place in Burkhart’s Kansas facility, where most recently, a woman suffered a uterine perforation after undergoing a late-term abortion procedure. The facility, Trust Women Wichita, advertises abortions up to 21 weeks, six days. The facility temporarily closed due to staffing issues in 2024 but reopened within two months. Allegedly, the co-executive directors, the medical director, and multiple staffers were unexpectedly fired in April of that year. Those who were allowed to stay were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, which led 10 of the facility’s 16 abortionists to resign in protest.
WICHITA, KS – AUGUST 12: Mark Gietzen is the chairman for Kansas Coalition for Life. He arrives nearly every morning at the South Wind Women’s Center in Wichita to places crosses in the lawn around the building and to offer “sidewalk counseling” to patients entering the facility. His group also keeps a log book to record the license plate information of every car that enters the facility. (Photo by Travis Heying for the Washington Post)
Burkhart is also the president of Wellspring Health Access in Casper, Wyoming, which just began committing abortions again since halting the procedures in February due to safety regulations on the sole abortion facility in the state. A judge has now blocked the safety measures, which “required abortion facilities to receive licensing as ambulatory surgical centers” and required women “to undergo an ultrasound before taking the abortion pill,” as Live Action News previously reported.
No respect
Despite her involvement with multiple abortion businesses, Burkhart has complained multiple times that the medical community does not respect her. “Within this realm of abortion provision, within reproductive rights, oftentimes physicians are ostracized from their own medical professions, they are ostracized politically,” she said.
Others in the abortion industry have similarly stated that legitimate health care providers tend to look down on abortionists, seeing them as “dirty” or the “lowest of the low.”
But apparently Time magazine felt Burkhart deserved to be honored as an “influential” individual. The question that should be asked is, ‘what kind of influence has she had?’
Working for a late-term abortionist and then operating facilities with frequent injuries is hardly helping women. Burkhart’s inclusion on the list is a sad statement on just how much pro-abortion extremism has warped minds to believe that those who kill defenseless human beings deserve accolades.
