Title: Fact-check: Do Democrats support abortion up until (and after) birth? - News - Austin American-Statesman - Austin, TX
Headings: Fact-check: Do Democrats support abortion up until (and after) birth?
Fact-check: Do Democrats support abortion up until (and after) birth?
Trump claims
Sources
Virginia legislation
Northam’s comments
Our Ruling
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Content: Is that true? [ ELI IMADALI/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]
Eli Imadali
By Madlin Mekelburg
@madlinbmek
Thursday
Posted Feb 27, 2020 at 4:20 PM
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In the latest push from Republicans to advance a federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks and a requirement for doctors to treat infants born after an attempted abortion, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spoke in favor of the efforts from the Senate floor. In his remarks, Cruz urged his Democratic colleagues to support these kinds of “common sense propositions,” a departure from the party’s “extreme” position on abortion. Neither bill — versions of which GOP lawmakers have attempted to pass several times over multiple years — was approved. “We’ve seen far too many Democrats embrace extreme positions on abortion: abortion up until the moment of birth and even, horrifically, after that,” Cruz said, before highlighting a radio interview Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam gave in 2019 about a bill in the Virginia House of Delegates regulating third-trimester abortions. “This bill was allowing a mother in labor, in the process of delivering a child, this bill would allow a doctor to kill that child instead of delivering that child in the midst of labor,” Cruz said. “ The idea of killing a child while the mother is in labor instead of delivering the infant is horrifying beyond words.” Cruz’s claim that Democrats support abortion up until birth and “even, horrifically, after that,” is inaccurate, as is his characterization of the Virginia proposal (which was unsuccessful). Trump claims
This isn’t the first time a Republican leader has used an inaccurate description of the Virginia bill to advance legislation to require care for infants “born alive” after attempted abortions.