Did the moderators of ABC News' presidential debate say late-term abortions don't happen? No, that's not true: Debate moderator Linsey Davis said it's not legal to kill babies after they're born in any state. She was fact checking former President Donald Trump's allegation that Democratic running mate Tim Walz had endorsed the "execution" of babies after birth.
The claim appeared in a post on Instagram (archived here) on September 11, 2024. The caption read:
Last night during the debate, @abcnews said that late-term abortions don't happen. Obviously, abortion extremist
@kamalaharris got on board with that lie.
This is how the post looked on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Thu Sept. 12 14:22:04 2024 UTC)
Nobody said "late-term abortions don't happen" during the 90-minute debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on September 10, 2024, as can be seen in the transcript of ABC News' replay on YouTube. The transcript is accessible on the YouTube page below the video.
ABC's moderators only uttered the word "abortion" in two of their questions. The first time was at the 15:40 mark of the YouTube video, when Davis asked Trump:
I want to turn to the issue of abortion ... In your home state of Florida you surprised many with regard to your six-week abortion ban, because you initially had said that it was too short, and you said, quote, 'I'm going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.' But then, the very next day, you reversed course and said you would vote to support the six-week ban. Vice President Harris says that women shouldn't trust you on the issue of abortion because you've changed your position so many times. Therefore, why should they trust you?
Trump said Democrats' position on abortion was too "radical," saying at the 17:01 mark that Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz:
says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth -- it's execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born -- is OK. And that's not OK with me. Hence the vote.
Davis corrected Trump at the 18:30 mark, saying:
There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.
The second mention was when Davis asked Harris if she would support any restrictions on a woman's right to an abortion as president (see the 23:26 mark.)
At no point did Davis or her co-moderator, David Muir, say late-term abortions do not occur in the U.S. Nor did any of ABC News' commentators make that claim during the post-debate wrap beginning at the 1:36:06 mark.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims related to abortion can be found here. Fact checks on the 2024 election can be read here.
