During Tuesday night’s presidential debate, ABC’s Linsey Davis “fact-checked” former President Donald Trump’s comments regarding children who survive abortions.
A chorus of journalists immediately questioned Davis’ “correction” of Trump, expressing that the Republican nominee made a valid point about some states’ pro-abortion policies.
Davis, who co-moderated the debate alongside her ABC colleague David Muir, claimed: “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.”
The moderator made the claim after Trump answered her question regarding his stance on abortion.
In Trump’s answer, he said that the Democrats take a “radical” position on the issue, adding: “They have abortion in the ninth month.”
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Trump had also referred to a 2019 interview of then-Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, who said that a “discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother” if a baby was born alive following a failed late-term abortion. Trump initially incorrectly referred to Northam as the former governor of West Virginia.
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Minutes after Davis attempted to debunk Trump’s response, the Media Research Center took to X (formerly Twitter) with a “fact check” of its own.
“Babies are regularly murdered after they are born in botched abortions,” wrote the watchdog group.
The Daily Signal’s Mary Margaret Olohan wrote in an article last month, “data from the Minnesota Department of Health shows that at least eight babies who survived abortions” in Minnesota “were left to die.”
Signal Managing Editor Tyler O’Neil posted a link to Olohan’s piece on X shortly after Davis’ “fact check” at the debate.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz has been the Governor of Minnesota since 2019.
“Under a 2015 Minnesota law, the state formerly was required to report whether abortions resulted in the live birth of a baby, what actions were taken to preserve the life of that baby, and whether the baby survived,” Olohan continued:
Those reporting requirements exposed that between Jan. 1, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2021, physicians performed five abortions that resulted in a baby’s live birth.
No measures were taken to help the first baby, who reportedly had “fetal anomalies” that resulted “in death shortly after delivery.” Two of the babies were given “comfort care measures” as they died. No measures were taken to “preserve life” of the last two babies, who were previable.
Previous data from the Minnesota Department of Health reveals that physicians have been leaving babies to die after failed abortions for years.
“Not true, ABC News,” wrote Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins on X Wednesday afternoon, responding to Davis’ “fact check.”
“In 12 states, children born alive after a failed abortion have no legal protection, and in three more states children born alive after an abortion had legal rights that governors—like Tim Walz—repealed,” Perkins wrote, citing the FRC’s data.
“Medical personnel have testified of babies being left to die or gruesomely killed after being born alive following a failed abortion,” he added.
Perkins posted a map to X showing each state’s level of protection for babies born alive following failed abortions. The map is also available on the FRC website.
Compact Magazine founder and editor Matthew Schmitz wrote on X Wednesday: “In 2022, years before Tim Walz emerged on the national scene, I pointed out that babies who survived abortion procedures were being left to die in Minnesota.”
Schmitz referred to a July 2022 post by pro-life journalist Micaiah Bilger.
In the post, Bilger enclosed what Schmitz referred to as a screenshot from the Walz administration’s Minnesota Department of Health.
“FIVE babies were born alive in abortions and left to die in Minnesota in 2021,” Bilger wrote, underlining nearly identical language in the screenshot. “FIVE – in one state!”
LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
