A debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump was bound to be chaotic, but when the two presidential candidates squared up for the first time last night, the conversation definitely went in directions we couldn’t have predicted. Trump made outrageous statements about immigrants eating pets (?) in Ohio (??) and confidently said he holds “the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” However, we know all too well that Trump’s claims can be as dangerous as they are laughable, sowing misinformation designed to confuse and sway voters. So one ridiculous claim we have to debunk is his repeated assertion that Democrats support “post-birth” abortions.
Trump’s comments came after a question from moderator Linsey Davis, who cited Trump’s waffling stance on abortion — he’s gone from bragging he was the “most pro-life president ever” to stating that a six-week abortion ban is too short, to changing his mind and saying he would support a six-week abortion ban. “Vice President Harris says that women shouldn’t trust you on the issue of abortion because you’ve changed your position so many times,” Davis stated. “Therefore, why should they trust you?”
In response, Trump talked about “abortion[s] in the ninth month” and the former governor of Virginia, pediatric neurologist Ralph Northam, whose comments on caring for an infant born with fatal complications led to controversy in 2019. (“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 said at the time. In later comments, he explained that as a pediatrician, he’s counseled families in difficult situations and accused of Republicans of using those situations to score political points, per NPR.)
“He said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby,” Trump said in the debate. “In other words, we’ll execute the baby.” He said that his support (for now!) of the six-week abortion ban stemmed from how “radical” the Democrats are about abortions. “[Harris’s] vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine,” Trump went on, referring to vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. “He also says execution after birth, it’s execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born, is okay. And that’s not okay with me.” Walz has never made such comments, per the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Davis, the moderator, responded simply. “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” she said.
She’s right (of course!), because a “post-birth” abortion would be infanticide, which, yes, again, is illegal. “Claims of abortions occurring “moments before birth” or even “after birth” are false,” KFF reported earlier this year. “These scenarios do not occur, nor are they legal in the United States.” So why are Republicans using them as a talking point?
By going back and forth on abortion, Trump is trying to straddle the line. He’s looking to appease the anti-abortion coalition in his base without alienating more moderate voters who support abortion. Republicans know that abortion is a bad issue for them. They’ve cemented themselves as the anti-abortion party in a country where 63 percent of adults believe it should be legal in all or most cases, per a Pew Research Center poll earlier this year. Trying to paint Democrats as the “radical” ones around abortion seems like their way of justifying their backwards stance on the issue.
And, for the record, not only do “post-birth” abortions not happen (again, that would be infanticide!), but even later abortions are rare. Pew Research Center found that 93 percent of abortions occur during the first trimester, with just 1 percent taking place after 21 weeks. A 2022 report in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health found that third-trimester abortions are “substantially more expensive [and] difficult to obtain” than first-trimester abortions, and usually only occur due to “new information about the pregnancy” like serious fetal health issues or even belatedly learning of the pregnancy; or due to barriers that prevented an earlier abortion, such as cost, stigma, and lack of provider.
In other words, late abortions typically only occur under exceptional circumstances. Abortions that happen after birth? Not. A. Thing.
Trump went on to avoid questions about whether he would veto a national abortion ban, which Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance has said would happen. (Vance himself, though, is personally opposed to abortion.) “I won’t have to,” Trump said, asserting that Congress would never be able to pass a national abortion ban, though he stated in a March radio interview that a 15-week national abortion ban would be “very reasonable.” He later noted, weirdly, that he “didn’t discuss” the major topic with his running made. “JD — I don’t mind if he has a certain view… but I really didn’t [speak with him].”
For her part, Harris took the opportunity to slam Trump’s comments. “Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion,” Harris said. “That is not happening. It’s insulting to the women of America.” She stated that she supports “reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade” while detailing the “unconscionable” effects of the abortion bans now in place across the country. “The majority of Americans believe in a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body,” she concluded.
Abortion care is healthcare and needs to be protected — and that includes debunking all the deliberately dangerous misinformation around it.
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Before you go, read up on these stars who have opened up about their own abortion experiences: