Walker report puts abortion back at center of Georgia race

GOP Senate candidate against abortion rights said to have paid for one

Atlanta — In Georgia’s pivotal U.S. Senate race, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, have each been laboring to cast the other as an extremist on abortion while deflecting questions about the finer points of their own positions.

The sidestepping by Warnock, who supports abortion rights, and Walker, who has called for a national ban, reflects the sensitivity of abortion politics in a post-Roe v. Wade America, where the procedure is open to regulation by state governments and, potentially, by Congress.

But Walker’s strategy may not work much longer after The Daily Beast reported Monday that the former University of Georgia and NFL football star encouraged and paid for a girlfriend’s abortion in 2009 — a blatant contradiction of his staunch claims that there’s “no excuse” for a procedure he characterizes as “killing.” Walker calls the report a “flat-out lie.”

The story propelled the issue of abortion back to the center of the race in the closing weeks of the campaign — and just ahead of the candidates’ Oct. 14 debate. The contest is one of the most consequential in the country this midterm season and could determine which party controls the Senate for the second half of President Joe Biden’s first term in office.

Abortion is an issue in other Senate races as well, including Colorado, Florida and North Carolina.

The Daily Beast interviewed a woman who identified herself as a former girlfriend of Walker’s and asked that her name not be disclosed out of concerns for her privacy. She provided a receipt indicating she had paid $575 for an abortion, as well as a get-well card from Walker and bank deposit records showing the image of a $700 personal check from Walker dated five days after the abortion receipt.

At the least, the report complicates Walker’s effort to use abortion as an issue against Warnock. And it underscores the sometimes-delicate task that confronts other candidates from both major parties who hope to use the issue ahead of the midterm elections.

AP PHOTO Herschel Walker, who has vehemently opposed abortion rights as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia, paid for an abortion for his girlfriend in 2009, the Daily Beast reported.