Conservative Think Tank Debunks Harris’ Claim That Late-Term Abortions Don’t Happen

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Late-term abortion is happening all the time, despite Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ denial at last week’s debate, according to a memo from a think tank founded by former Vice President Mike Pence.

Thousands of babies who could survive outside the womb are aborted every year, the memo from Advancing American Freedom says.

Advancing American Freedom, which Pence founded in 2021, is a conservative think tank dedicated to promoting the policies of the Trump-Pence administration, according to the organization’s website.

About 0.9% of abortions in 2021 were performed at or after 21 weeks, when the baby can survive outside the womb with proper medical care, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Since the CDC tabulated 625,978 legal induced abortions in the 48 states that report them, that means abortionists killed at least 5,600 babies who were at or beyond 21 weeks gestation that year.

Yet Vice President Kamala Harris said during the presidential debate that women aren’t getting late-term abortions.

“Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion—that is not happening,” Harris said in her debate last Tuesday with former President Donald Trump hosted by ABC News.

Nine states and Washington, D.C., have no time limit on abortion. Five premature babies, likely the victims of partial-birth abortions, were recovered from a D.C. abortion center in 2022.

Former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said the fate of babies who survive failed abortions should be between the doctor and the mother, Advancing American Freedom pointed out in the memo.

“If a mother is in labor…the infant would be delivered,” Northam explained in a 2019 radio interview. “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 mother.”

Warren Hern, a well-known late-term abortionist in Colorado, told The Atlantic in a profile that he performs abortions well after viability, including sex-selective abortions. He said about half the babies he aborts are healthy and have no fetal abnormalities.

Hern believes that the “viability of a fetus is determined not by gestational age but by a woman’s willingness to carry it,” The Atlantic reported.

A Pennsylvania jury convicted infamous late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell of murder in 2013 for slitting the necks of babies born-alive, the Advancing American Freedom memo highlights.

Pro-life activists have called abortion clinics to ask if they perform late-term abortions. A clinic offered Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins an abortion at 34 weeks.

“Late-term abortions happen all the time,” Advancing American Freedom said in the memo. “Anyone saying otherwise is misinformed or lying. We must stand for life and confront the dark reality of abortion.”

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