PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (WBOY) — While on the topic of abortion during the presidential debate Tuesday night, former President Donald Trump brought up West Virginia, but maybe not in the correct context.
When asked about his recent statements on women’s reproductive rights, Trump referenced the previous governor of West Virginia, Earl Ray Tomlin who held the office from 2010 to 2017. However, he seemed to mean the previous governor of Virginia.
When referencing late-term abortions, Trump said the following:
“You can look at the governor of West Virginia—the previous governor of West Virginia, not the current governor, he’s doing an excellent job, but the governor before—he said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby, in other words we will execute the baby. And that’s why I did that because that predominates because they’re radical, the Democrats are radical in that,” Trump said.
Although Tomlin was a Democrat, he famously defied his party’s stance on abortion and campaigned on being pro-life. The former Virginia governor Ralph Northam, however, made headlines in 2019 after making a comment that referenced “after-birth abortions.” The Associated Press fact-checked the interview earlier this year and said that Northam’s comment was “distorted” after Trump shared the 2019 interview clip on his social media in April.
Northam was replaced by current Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) in 2022.
There are no states where infanticide, or killing a baby after it is born, is legal.
During the debate, Trump said that he is proud the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 because it leaves the decision up to the states. Ultimately, Trump vocalized that he is against late term abortion but that he does “strongly” believe there should be “exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”
Vice President Kamala Harris called “Trump abortion bans” that have been passed in 20 states since Roe v. Wade was overturned “immoral.”
“I pledge to you when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law,” Harris said during the debate.
West Virginia passed a near abortion ban in in September 2022, which prohibits abortions except in cases of non-viable fetuses, fetal anomalies and medical emergencies or in cases of rape and incest at up to 8 weeks for adults and 14 weeks for minors, as long as the victim reported the incident to law enforcement.
