Fact-checkers in last week’s vice presidential debate are themselves being fact-checked, by a liberal media outlet no less, after accusing Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) of misrepresenting Minnesota’s lenient abortion policies.
Becket Adams, a contributor for The Hill, wrote on Monday that the Ohio Republican was “correct” in his assertion that Minnesota under Gov. Tim Walz “repealed and re-wrote even its most basic common-sense abortion guidelines” following the demise of Roe v. Wade. In doing so, it became “one of the most loosely regulated states in the union.” Adams’ opinion pice comes after Walz on Sunday deflected when asked by a Fox News reporter about whether he plans to take his extreme abortion policies to the national stage.
According to Adams, journalists are mistaken if they thought Sen. Vance “lied” when he stated during the CBS debate that “abortion specialists in the state are not required to render life-saving aid to children who survive botched abortions.” In fact, that statement was rated true — a post-Dobbs rewrite of the state’s abortion laws contains vague language about whether a doctor would be required to attempt to save a child born during a failed abortion.
“[T]he statute that [Walz] signed into law,” Vance said during the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate, “it says that a doctor who presides over an abortion, where the baby survives, the doctor is under no obligation to provide lifesaving care to a baby who survives a botched late-term abortion.” He added, “That’s fundamentally barbaric.”
In response, Gov. Walz claimed Vance was “trying to distort the way a law is written, to try and make a point.” Challenged by Vance to explain the discrepancy, Walz blustered back, “That is not the way the law is written. … [T]hat’s been misread. And it was fact-checked at the last debate. It’s not the case. It’s not true. That’s not what the law says.”
Since the 1970s, Minnesota historically had laws on the books that required abortion doctors to render life-saving aid to a child born alive. Between 2019 and 2022, the state’s Department of Health recorded eight such instances; none of the children survived. After the fall of Roe in 2022, Gov. Walz repealed provisions of the 1976 statute and the 2015 Born Alive Infants Protection Act which explicitly stated physicians must try and save the lives of children who survive abortions. A phrase encouraging physicians to “preserve the life and health of the child” is now missing from the law.
Conservatives are attempting to highlight Walz’s support for the far-left abortion policy following their own fallout from a Georgia court’s ruling temporarily outlawing IVF. The state’s legislature quickly passed a law to preserve the pro-family policy, but Democrats used the decision to tie President Trump and Republicans down the ballot to unpopular anti-abortion policies. Now, the table has been turned on Walz who sought to defend his record in a Fox News interview on Sunday.
Host Shannon Bream pressed Minnesota Governor Tim Walz over his debate performance and defense of Minnesota’s abortion policies. “Abortion Finder, a website that helps women find access, says abortion is ‘legal throughout pregnancy in Minnesota. There is no ban or limit on abortion in Minnesota based on how far along in a pregnancy you are,’” she said. “You signed a bill that makes it legal through all nine months. Is that a position you think Democrats should advocate for nationally?”
Walz replied by claiming that the restoration of Roe V. Wade is the campaign’s official position, forcing Bream to note that Minnesota’s laws go far beyond Roe V. Wade. “What you signed is there’s not a single limit through nine months of pregnancy. Roe had a trimester framework that did have limits through the pregnancy. The Minnesota law does not have that,” the Fox News host pointed out. Asked if he considers Trump’s promise to protect women a “lie,” Walz answered, “Yes, of course. Senator Vance has in the past said so too. Now look, they may see this as an election issue. We see it as a right of women to make their own bodily decisions. And that’s what the states like my state have the ability to put that in.”
