A Tim Walz misstep in Tuesday’s vice presidential debate may have created problems for Joyce Craig’s campaign in New Hampshire — and on the issue Democrats believe is their strongest asset: abortion.
At issue are claims both Craig and Walz have made about late-term abortions that are contradicted by the data. Craig insists that her support for abortion at any point during pregnancy is irrelevant because late term elective abortion “doesn’t happen.” But multiple medical sources have confirmed it does happen — thousands of times a year in the U.S.
And Walz denies he signed a state law permitting doctors to allow newborns who survive abortion to die on the table after the procedure. In fact, it has happened eight times in Minnesota during Walz’s term as governor.
But candidates made their disputed claims during debates.
On Tuesday, Republican U.S. Senator and vice presidential nominee JD Vance (R-Ohio) criticized Walz’s support for a series of bills he signed into law repealing Minnesota’s protections for newborns who survive abortion.
“I read the Minnesota… statute that you signed into law,” Vance said. “It says that a doctor who presides over an abortion where the baby survives, the doctor is under no obligation to provide life-saving care to a baby who survives a botched late-term abortion. That is, I think, pro choice or not pro-choice, that is fundamentally barbaric.”
Walz claimed Vance wasn’t telling the truth.
“That is not the way the law is written,” Walz said. “It’s not the case. It’s not true. That’s not what the law says.” Walz also claimed that the issue had been “fact checked.”
He’s right, but not the way he apparently intended.
Multiple media outlets, including left-leaning NPR and the Associated Press, have confirmed that Walz signed a law changing parts of Minnesota state law ending the mandate that doctors take “all reasonable measures” to “preserve the life and health of the born alive infant.” Instead, Minnesota doctors are now only required to “care for the infant who is born alive.”
According to The Dispatch, Minnesota has “recorded eight deaths among infants who survived abortion attempts during Tim Walz’s tenure as governor.”
Walz supports legal abortion for any reason at any point during the nine months of pregnancy, saying during the debate that “these are women’s decisions to make about their health care decisions, and the physicians who know best when they need to do this,” regardless of viability or the length of the pregnancy.
Craig also supports unrestricted abortion at any point in a pregnancy.
During the Democratic gubernatorial primary debate on WMUR, Craig was asked: “Do you personally oppose elective abortion after a fetus reaches viability?”
“It is a Republican talking point. It’s not happening in New Hampshire.”
In other public appearances, Craig has claimed that elective post-viability abortions, or late-term abortions, don’t happen at all.
But multiple studies show that thousands of late-term abortions — after 21 weeks of pregnancy — happen every year in the U.S. Between one and two percent of all the approximately one million abortions performed each year take place at 21 weeks or later.
In addition, a Colorado doctor confirmed to The Atlantic last year that he’s performed many elective late-term abortions, estimating that about half of the women who sought his services after 21 weeks of pregnancy did not have “devastating medical diagnoses.”
As for Craig’s claims that elective late-term abortions “don’t happen” in New Hampshire, there is no way to know. Democrats have repeatedly killed legislation that would have the state collect basic demographic data on abortions the way it does on most other medical procedures. New Hampshire is one of just four states that does not collect this information as part of its public health policy.
Campaign professionals in both parties agree that abortion is a far better issue for Democrats than Republicans. A new St. Anselm College Survey Center poll released Thursday found New Hampshire voters believe Vice President Kamala Harris would do a better job of “protecting the rights of women” than former President Donald Trump by a 56 to 33 percent margin.
But polls also show a majority of New Hampshire voters have a more moderate view of abortion than Craig or Walz and support the state’s current law. Walz’s attempt to escape his own record may have inadvertently done Republicans a favor.
