Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump sparred over late-term abortion during their first presidential debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
When asked by the ABC moderators about abortion, a difficult subject for Trump and Republicans in the 2024 election cycle, Trump said that Democrats in several states support being able to abort a fetus late into pregnancy.
Trump initially misspoke, saying that the former governor of West Virginia was saying that he supported abortion after birth.
The former president was referring to comments from former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who said that he supported measures in which “the infant would be kept comfortable” after birth until the mother decided what to do. Trump later in the segment corrected himself and correctly referenced the former Virginia governor.
Harris responded to Trump’s claims by saying that she supports codifying into law the “protections of Roe v. Wade,” the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a federal constitutional right to abortion before it was overruled in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, and denied Trump’s claim that there are any states in which abortion is legal on demand at any point during pregnancy.
“Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion. That is not an abortion. That is not happening,” said Harris.
According to the healthcare think tank KFF, there are seven states that have no gestational age limits for abortion.
There are also 11 states that allow abortion beyond fetal viability in cases in which an abortion provider or physician makes a “good faith medical judgment” or “professional judgment” that the procedure is needed for the life or health of the mother.
There are four states that allow abortion into the 24th week of pregnancy and beyond in cases in which a medical professional makes a “good faith” or “professional” judgment that it is necessary for the life or health of the mother.
Anti-abortion advocates say that those exceptions open the door to abortion at any time during pregnancy.
“Will she allow abortion in the eighth month, ninth month, seventh month — OK, would you do that?” Trump said.
Harris did not answer.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2021, 93.5% of legal abortions were performed at or before 13 weeks of gestation. Nearly 6% of abortions were performed between 14 to 20 weeks of gestation, and 0.9% of abortions were conducted at or after 21 weeks of gestation.
The Guttmacher Institute, the think tank arm of Planned Parenthood, reported in May that the number of abortions in the United States increased for the first time in 2023, with a total of 1.037 million abortions.
That means that approximately 9,333 abortions after 21 weeks of gestation occurred in 2023, and 59,109 occurred between 14 and 20 weeks.
Trump also noted that Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), is “a horrible pick” in part because of his support for abortion into the ninth month.
“Her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine,” said Trump. “He also says execution after birth — it’s execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born. And that’s not OK with me.”
Walz, as governor, signed the Protect Reproductive Options Act in January 2023 following the first election after the Supreme Court overturned Roe.
The law codified a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” and essentially prohibited any restrictions on abortion, including gestational age limits.
Data from the Minnesota Department of Health indicate that eight babies were born alive following botched abortions during Walz’s time as governor, three in 2019 and five in 2021.
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Only three of the infants, one in 2019 and two in 2021, were reported to have received “comfort care measures.” None of the infants survived.
The data were published by the state under a 2015 law that formerly required abortion providers to report live births from failed abortions. The mandatory reporting law was repealed in May 2023.
