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Former president and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump’s record of—let’s call them what they are—absolutely unhinged comments about abortion have been well-documented, but his first presidential debate with vice president and 2024 Democratic nominee Kamala Harris represented a new low. Trump responded to moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis’s questions on the subject with typically disjointed references to “abortion in the ninth month” and “the governor of Virginia…saying ‘We will execute the baby.’” (For some context, Trump was wildly misquoting comments made by former Virginia governor Ralph Northam in 2019.)
While Harris did her best to stay on-message and express her opposition to the state abortion bans that have spread throughout the US since the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, it’s difficult for even the most prepared debater to fight a flowing tide of misinformation that—even for Trump—tends to have little to no basis in reality. To that end, Vogue reached out to Holli Jakalow, MD, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, for a fact-check on some of Trump’s more outlandish claims relating to reproductive autonomy. Read her full analysis below:
On “executing babies after birth”:
“According to recent CDC data, 94% of abortions occur in the first trimester. The majority of other abortions are performed in the second trimester. The very small number that take place in the third trimester are usually done because of dangerous medical conditions. In New York, where I practice, pregnant people have the absolute right to abortion through the 24th week of pregnancy, and beyond that in specific medical circumstances. Abortion in all states, at any gestational age, occurs during pregnancy. ‘Executing babies after birth’ does not ever describe abortion. That is a description of murder.”
On “this issue [of abortion] being taken over by the states”—a reference to the outcome of the fall of Roe v. Wade:
“‘Leaving everything up to the states’ creates an unsafe medical disparity. By restricting abortion in some states, the most vulnerable pregnant people will suffer. Pregnant people who cannot leave their state due to intimate partner violence, financial or childcare obstacles, and other common circumstances will be denied abortion while wealthier, more privileged residents will likely still have access through travel.”
On Trump claiming Harris will “allow abortion in the eighth month, ninth month, seventh month”:
“These are sensationalist comments to imply abortion occurs immediately prior to birth. Abortion does not occur in the end of pregnancy.”
