Marsha Blackburn Claims Her Democratic Senate Opponents Are For Abortion ‘Up To The Minute Before And After Birth’
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) made a false and extremist claim on Fox News’ Faulkner Focus, saying the Democrats running for her seat in 2024, “have supported abortion up to the last minute before — and after — birth.”
“And I know that there are three that are running against me. They’re all leftist socialists. They would make Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer look like moderates,” Blackburn said on Friday’s show. “And I know that they have supported abortion up to the last minute before and after birth.”
One Democrat who has declared her candidacy against Blackburn is state legislator Gloria Johnson. She is one of the “Tennessee Three,” who was nearly expelled for participating in a gun control rally earlier this year.
Many right-wing Republicans have stopped short of claiming Democrats support abortion “after birth,” mostly because that would no longer be considered an “abortion,” but the very real crime of homicide.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) falsely claimed on CNN in April, “What the Democratic Party proposes on abortion is barbaric. Abortion up to the moment of birth, taxpayer-funded.”
To the right of Graham, however, stands Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who went with the “after birth” theory in a 2020 speech, saying that Democrats want “abortion up until the moment of birth and even, horrifically, after that.”
And of course, former President Donald Trump tweeted in 2019, “The Democrat position on abortion is now so extreme that they don’t mind executing babies AFTER birth.”
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has pushed back on these falsehoods, saying, “Statements about ‘abortion up until the point of birth’ or ‘elective abortion’ are unscientific and crafted to polarize the conversation about abortion.”
The Insider reported on CDC data that refuted the extremist claims:
According to 2020 CDC data, less than 1% of abortions were performed past 21 weeks of gestation. A full-term pregnancy is 39 to 40 weeks.
The vast majority of abortions – more than 93% – that were reported in 2020 were performed at or before 13 weeks of gestation, according to the CDC.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
