At debate, Walker denies past support for US abortion ban
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Georgia’s Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker on Friday denied his previous support for an outright national ban on abortion, though he has insisted at various points throughout the campaign that it was a proposal he endorsed.
Walker, a staunch anti-abortion politician recently accused by a former girlfriend of encouraging and paying for her 2009 abortion, was asked during a debate with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock about his support for “a complete ban on a national level.” He said the moderator had misstated his position.
Walker’s claim contradicted statements he had made repeatedly on the campaign trail, including in July when he said “that’s a problem” that there is no national ban.
Walker said Friday that his position is the same as Georgia’s state law, the so-called heartbeat bill that bans abortion at six weeks, before many women know they’re pregnant. That law went into effect this year after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortions nationwide.
The debate in Georgia’s marquee Senate contest was held just days before in-person early voting begins Monday. The outcome will help determine which party controls the Senate for the next two years of President Joe Biden’s term.
The heated exchange on abortion was one of many that highlighted stark differences between the two men on policy, personality and governing philosophy. The debate covered a wide range of topics, including abortion, personal integrity, crime and student loans, and forced both men to answer attacks that have flooded voters’ television screens and social media feeds for months.
Walker, a Georgia football icon making his first bid for public office, leaned heavily on assertions that Warnock is a puppet of President Joe Biden, saying the Nov. 8 midterm election is about what those two “had done to you and your family” in an inflationary economy. Warnock, who is senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, answered that the election is a choice about “who is ready to represent Georgia.”
Warnock never directly brought up the recent allegations about Walker paying for an abortion, leaving that to moderators, who elicited another flat denial from the Republican nominee. Trying to shift the discussion, Walker blasted Warnock for being a Baptist pastor who supports abortion rights and suggested he doesn’t care about abortions in the Black community. Both men are Black.
“Instead of aborting those babies, why aren’t you baptizing those babies?” Walker asked.
Warnock insisted he can support abortion rights as a Christian and a pastor. “God gave us a choice and I respect the right of women to make a decision,” Warnock said, adding that Walker “wants to arrogate more power to politicians than God has.”
Warnock and fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff won their Senate seats in a January 2021 special election two months after Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. That was the first time in two decades Democrats won federal elections in the historically conservative state, raising questions about whether Warnock can replicate his victory in a midterm election, especially with Biden’s popularity down among Georgia voters.