During the presidential debate on Tuesday night, Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris dodged the question of whether or not she supports aborting babies in the last few months of pregnancy — often when they can survive outside of the womb.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Harris sparred on abortion in addition to various other hot-button issues at the debate hosted by ABC News at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Trump reiterated his belief that abortion laws should be set by individual states. Harris, once again, promised to wipe out pro-life states life and federalize abortion on demand by “restoring Roe v. Wade.”
Trump specifically dialed in on Democrats’ abortion-throughout-pregnancy extremism, pressing Harris as to whether or not she supports any limits on abortions.
“You should ask: Will she allow abortion in the eighth month, ninth month, seventh month,” Trump said.
“Come on,” the vice president replied, shaking her head.
“Ok, would you do that?” Trump pressed. “Why don’t you ask her that question?
“Why don’t you answer the question: would you veto a national abortion ban?” Harris shot back without answering.
“That’s the problem, because under Roe v. Wade, you could do abortions in the seventh month, the eighth month, the ninth month. And probably after birth,” Trump explained.
“That’s not true,” Harris claimed.
Indeed, seven states and Washington, DC, have no limits on abortion, meaning a baby could be legally aborted in those states at any point during pregnancy for any reason. Under Roe v. Wade, a now-defunct 1973 Supreme Court decision which had invented a constitutional right to abortion, most states allowed abortions up to viability, which is often considered to be between 20 and 24 weeks. Some states allowed abortions after that point, sometimes under certain health exceptions.
Thousands of unborn babies are killed in abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy every year. The media frames the loss of thousands of unborn lives as rare because late-term abortions make up a small percentage of abortions overall.
For example, there were 625,978 legal induced abortions recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2021. One percent of those were after 21 weeks, which is more than 6,000 post-viability babies killed in abortion. The pro-abortion Guttmacher institute estimated that more than one million abortions were performed in 2023, which by CDC estimates could mean at least 10,000 late-term abortions were performed that year.
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Regarding infants allegedly being killed after birth following abortions, Trump pointed to pro-abortion former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who in 2019 made controversial comments about a bill he supported that would have allowed women in his state to request an abortion even as they are about to give birth.
Appearing as a guest on WTOP-FM, Northam said the fierce reaction to the bill was “really blown out of proportion.”
Asked about a woman requesting abortion at the moment of childbirth, he responded:
When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of obviously the mother, with the consent of the physician — more than one physician, by the way — and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that’s non-viable.
Northam added:
If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.
Northam later said his comments were “mischaracterized” by the media, but he refused to recant.
In Minnesota, which is run by Harris’s vice-presidential pick Tim Walz, Department of Health data has revealed that at least eight babies have been born alive in botched abortions during his time as governor. None of the babies appeared to receive life-preserving care, and it “does not appear that any of the babies born alive in botched abortions survived,” the Daily Signal reported.
According to the report, Walz repealed a 2015 Minnesota law in 2023 that required the state to report if abortions resulted in the live birth of a baby, what actions were taken to preserve the life of that baby, and if the baby survived. He also stripped “the state’s requirement that measure be taken to preserve the baby’s ‘life and health’ and merely replacing it with a nebulous requirement for ‘care,” the report continued.
Harris has refused to cite any abortion limits she supports.
Following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, the Biden-Harris White House and Democrats called for the restoration of Roe v. Wade, which would federalize the issue of abortion again. Democrats have repeatedly tried to pass the radical Women’s Health Protection Act, which they claim would restore Roe. But opponents of the legislation, including Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), say the bill is an “expansion” of Roe and could lead to abortion throughout pregnancy across the country. Biden pledged to sign the bill should it ever reach his desk, and so has Harris.
Ultimately, abortion is Harris’s number one campaign issue, as it was for Biden before his exit from the race. While most polling shows that abortion is not a top priority for voters, one in four Democrats are single-issue voters on abortion and the majority of independents identify as “pro-choice.” The focus on abortion and painting Republicans as dangerous to women also seems like a ploy to distract from Americans’ top concerns under the Biden-Harris administration — the flailing economy and the border — which is essentially open.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.