September 12, 2024
The Presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump was a 90-minute battle between the candidates, and at times, the ABC moderators. However, the moderators were only interested in fact-checking Trump – and even then, they still got it wrong.
Other news outlets joined in. CBS News declared, “Trump falsely claims Democrats support abortions “after birth.” Here’s a fact check.” Trump falsely claims some states allow abortion after birth,” said another from CNN.
A basic and rudimentary Google search or scroll on X (formerly Twitter) would’ve shown them how wrong they were.
We decided to do the media’s jobs for them and challenge the biggest falsehoods spread at the debate by Harris and the ABC moderators.
LATE TERM ABORTION ISN’T REAL
“Under Roe v. Wade, you could do abortions in the seventh month, the eighth month, the ninth month,” Trump said. Harris responded, “that’s not true.” The National Review did their own analysis of this exchange, finding that “The moderators failed to challenge Harris on her lack of clarity surrounding the procedure’s limits.”
Of course, Harris dodged this line of questioning – and not for the first time. During a CBS interview in 2023, Harris refused to name a single limit on abortion she would support. And as a senator, Harris co-sponsored legislation to ban state-level restrictions on abortion.
In fact, the Biden-Harris Administration’s top healthcare policy priority, the Women’s Health Protection Act, would allow abortions up until birth nationwide without any ability for the states to push back.
Students for Life Action (SFLAction) has actually fought against this myth for quite a long time now. Just last August, we took former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to task for this outright fabrication.
READ: Yes, Jen Psaki: Abortions Up to Birth Do Happen & You Support Them
Since that time, Whoopi Goldberg, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, academics and other pro-abortion activists have been called out directly for continuing this myth.
Late-term abortion does happen. There are numerous documented instances of late-term abortions. In 2020, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that more than nine in 10 abortions (93.1%) take place by three months of pregnancy (12 weeks). That leaves almost 7% (6.9 to be exact), taking place later and late in pregnancy. Of that, 5.8% of abortions end lives from 14 to 20 weeks (5 months), leaving more than one percent (1.1%) in the last months of pregnancy.
Not only that, organizations like Planned Parenthood profit from this. We wrote in August about a video from the Center for Medial Progress (CMP) showing Planned Parenthood staff laughing about the end results of late-term abortions, “discussing the sale of body parts from late-term fetuses, some of which had been delivered alive and mostly intact” according to reporting from the NY Post.
BABIES THAT ARE BORN ALIVE AFTER AN ABORTION AREN’T LEFT TO DIE
When Trump brought up the fact that “babies are being executed,” the moderators lost it. The media likewise picked up right where the debate left off. “Killing a child after birth is infanticide, which is illegal in all 50 states” claimed the New York Times.
Except that is completely false.
According to data from the Minnesota Department of Health and additional reporting from the National Review, “Since Governor Walz was inaugurated in 2019, eight babies survived abortion attempts in Minnesota. On five occasions, no measures were taken to preserve life.”
Minnesota, the home state of Kamala Harris’ Vice-Presidential pick Tim Walz, is one of several American states that have no limits on abortion whatsoever.
And Harris, just like Walz, has actively worked against legislation and reporting efforts to ensure that babies that survive abortion are medically taken care of.
Harris voted against a measure that would’ve provided lifesaving, humane treatments for abortion survivors. The reason? Harris argues that this would “jeopardize the right to reproductive health care in our country.”
Just recently, Students for Life of America (SFLA) shared the story of Melisa Ohden and others in the Almost Aborted ad campaign, highlighting the powerful stories of abortion survivors.
The media and the Democrats can spread all the falsehoods they want or perform whatever half-baked fact checks they feel like. But organizations like SFLAction and SFLA will be there to call it out.