Donald Trump is doubling down on his claim that babies are executed "after the ninth month" as part of his argument against abortion rights.
Trump released a video Monday declining to outline a national abortion policy, and instead saying he believed it should be decided at the state level. In that video, he said that people are aborting babies after the ninth month — a claim that has been dismissed by experts.
A few hours later, when the Biden campaign singled out pieces of Trump's video, he began to panic on Truth Social.
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On Monday afternoon, he returned to his personal social media account and posted an edited video of Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam talking about a bill that would ease restrictions on third-trimester abortions. Third-trimester procedures are incredibly rare and almost exclusively deal with medical emergencies.
Trump twists Northam's words, claiming: "The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated IF that’s what the mother and the family desired. AND THEN A DISCUSSION WOULD ENSUE between the physicians and the mother. In other words, the Baby would be executed after birth!"
What Northam actually said is quite the opposite, a Reuters fact check found.
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Instead, the comments involve cases, “Where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that’s nonviable,” Northam said. “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother,” Northam stated.
In most cases in which the baby is expected to die after birth, the doctors do whatever they can to make it comfortable so parents can hold it and be with it as it passes. This can happen frequently with premature babies born before viability.
Hours after Trump's post, Joe Biden's campaign released an ad sharing the experience of a Texas couple who baby died. The mother is shown going through the box she had of items preparing for her daughter's birth. She showed the blanket that baby Willow was in as she died, and her footprints. The mother a was told after her water broke that the hospital couldn't do anything for her until she was dying, the ad states.
Indeed, Amanda became septic and almost died twice before the hospital would help safely remove Willow from her womb. Now Amanda may never be able to have children again.
