GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that Democrats are in favor of infanticide — or what he calls abortion “after the baby is born.” Though Trump has made the claim on multiple media platforms, his post-birth abortion rhetoric is usually reserved for partisan rally crowds.
When he was President in 2019, Trump told a Florida crowd that doctors — enabled by Democrats — were “executing” babies with their mothers’ consent.
“Democrats are aggressively pushing late-term abortion allowing children to be ripped from their mother’s womb, right up until the moment of birth,” Trump said in Panama City, FL. “The baby is born and you wrap the baby beautifully and you talk to the mother about the possible execution of the baby.”
Now with abortion looming as a perilous 2024 electoral issue for Republicans, Trump has recently wavered and tried to tone down the severity of his anti-abortion messaging, while trying — futilely, as the post below indicates — to maintain support from his anti-abortion supporters and those fervently opposed to IVF.
I am an evangelical voter in Pennsylvania.
I want to vote Trump. But his taxpayer funded IVF plan forces me to withhold my vote.
I pray that he reverses course. But until then, I refuse to reward betrayal with my vote. https://t.co/HHvORyeHNK
— Ben Zeisloft (@BenZeisloft) August 31, 2024
With Trump walking a fine line on the issue, Trump aide Corey Lewandowski appeared on Fox News with host Shannon Bream and broke out the infanticide rhetoric, portraying the illegal practice as something Democrats approve of — just as Trump has done in the past.
Corey Lewandowski on Fox News Sunday pushes Trump’s disgusting, misogynist lie about moms in blue states murdering their babies. Host Shannon Bream pushes back (but barely) at the end of the clip. pic.twitter.com/9XJkZvQ9ey
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 1, 2024
Levandowski’s assertion was smacked down by Bream, who addressed the legality of late term abortion in some states but called out Levandowski on his after-birth abortion rhetoric.
“To be clear, [in] a number of states there is abortion allowed through pregnancy and that includes a measure that Governor Tim Walz signed in Minnesota,” Bream said. “But Democrats say they absolutely disavow the idea of infanticide…I think everybody agrees infanticide is illegal and wrong.”