Republican U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance of Ohio admitted having a "hard" time deciding what "reasonable exceptions" he would accept if Republicans can enact a federal abortion ban.
The candidate was pressed on his position Wednesday by Fox News hosts John Roberts and Sandra Smith.
"You said reasonable exceptions," Roberts noted. "What exceptions are reasonable to you?"
"Well, look, I think it's always hard to say every single possible exception," Vance replied. "My goal, like I said, John, is to save as many lives as possible, to try to protect as many unborn babies as possible."
"But — but — but I'm pro-life and I'm not ashamed of it," he insisted.
Sandra Smith pressed Vance after he skirted the question.
"One last chance for voters to hear what those exceptions might be," Smith offered.
"Look, I — I — I — I think that I — I — I, like I said," Vance stuttered.
"OK," Smith reacted.
"One obvious exception, of course, is you've got to make sure that you have life of the mother protected," the candidate said. "There are other exceptions as well. My view is we want to save as many lives as possible."
It was not clear from Vance's answer if he supports exceptions for rape and incest.
According to new claims, Herschel Walker drove a woman with whom he was having a romantic relationship to an abortion clinic.
In a press release, Attorney Gloria Allred said that she would hold a Wednesday press conference with the woman, who was identified as "Jane Doe."
"A new woman (Jane Doe) will speak today, October 26, 2022, at a press conference with her attorney, Gloria Allred, to allege that she had a romantic, intimate relationship with Herschel Walker and that he drove her to an abortion clinic to have an abortion after she became pregnant as a result of her relationship with him," the press release said.
Allred said that "evidence in support of her romance with Mr. Walker will be revealed at the press conference."
The event was scheduled for 2:30 pm ET on Wednesday.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tangled with a Georgia voter who disagreed with her on whether or not a 10-year-old girl should be forced to have her rapist's child.
"You're blaming this all on the women," the caller told Greene. "My body is my body and I want — I don't want the government telling me what I can do with my body."
"Ma'am, are you having children anytime soon?" Greene interrupted. "That's my question. I'm asking a legitimate question. And you're right it's your body but a baby inside a woman's womb is another person's body, not your body and not my body. And abortion is murder of another human being, whether that body is inside your uterus or not. But that is murder. I do not support the murder of another human being."
"But I don't think you're having children anytime soon," the lawmaker said. "So I appreciate your interest in women's rights but killing an unborn baby is not a woman's right and that's not health care."
The caller posed a question about a 10-year-old child who became pregnant after being raped.
"A child abuser and a rapist should be put to death if they are doing that to a 10-year-old child," Greene replied. "Number one, I think that should be our focus. That is a very rare, rare, rare, rare occasion so that should not be the entire premise of the argument on abortion."
"Again, ma'am, I know you say it's your body, you're choice, but I don't think you're having any children anytime soon," she added. "I think we need to focus on the future of America and that's our children because they are our future and the unborn; they're our future also. So let's focus on protecting their lives instead of being focused on a lie that abortion is women's health care because that's not health care."
Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor of Arizona, argued on Sunday that banning abortions would offer women "true choices" during pregnancy.
During an interview on CBS, Lake said "abortionists" were the ones refusing to give women choices. Lake has previously
vowed to sign an abortion ban based on fetal "heartbeats" if she becomes governor.
"I'm a woman," she told CBS on Sunday. "I'm all for women's health care. I come from a large family. Seven sisters, I have. Of course, I want women's health care. This has moved beyond health care. We're not giving women choices."
"I'm for giving women true choices," she continued. "And when they walk into an abortion center, they're only given one choice. They're not told that you have the choice to keep your baby and we can help."
Fox News host Shannon Bream asked Georgia candidate for governor Stacey Abrams (D) to respond to Kanye West's opposition to abortion for Black Americans.
"Kanye West or Ye, talking to our Tucker Carlson this week, had this to say," Bream said before playing a clip of West saying that he was concerned about "Black babies" being aborted.
Bream noted that "about 38% of abortions were obtained in the U.S. by Black women."
"Just 13.6% of our population is Black," she added. "Do you share Ye's concern that Black Americans are disproportionally impacted like he says by abortion?"
"I share the concern of women across the state of Georgia," Abrams replied, "that they are being denied access to medical care, that in the state of Georgia, Black women are most likely to die of maternal mortality issues because they are denied access to health care under this governor."
Matt DePerno, the Republican nominee for attorney general in Michigan, said recently that Plan B birth control pills should be treated like fentanyl and be banned "at the border."
In a recording that surfaced on Tuesday, a man asks DePerno how Plan B can be stopped.
"What's Plan B?" DePerno wonders.
"The morning after pill," the man explains. "Can you ban it?"
"You've got to figure out how you ban the pill in the state," DePerno says. "How do you stop it from coming in? You have to stop it at the border. It would be no different than, like, fentanyl."
"It's a state issue," he adds. "The state has to ban it. And it should be banned. It's just an issue of how do you enforce it."
Fox News host Shannon Bream grilled Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) over his proposed national abortion ban. He asserted that Americans would "revolt" unless he sponsored the legislation.
Graham appeared on Fox News Sunday just days after proposing a 15-week federal abortion ban with minimal exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
But Bream pointed out that Graham was on record saying abortion decisions should return to state legislatures if the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
"You've got to explain the pivot," Bream said.
Graham insisted that despite his remarks on states' rights, he has spent 20 years trying to ban abortion at the federal level.
"But you said the states should make these decisions," Bream noted.
"Elected officials can make the decisions," Graham countered. "State or federal. I'm not inconsistent."
Throughout the interview, Graham insisted that the United States had the same abortion policies as China and North Korea.
"If you tell the pro-life movement that we can't set some national standard to prevent Chinese abortion policy in Maryland or California, there will be a revolt by the pro-life community," he argued. "The people are with me!"
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said Republican candidates on the campaign trail should take credit for the "huge win" that revoked federal abortion rights for women.
During an appearance on Fox News, Jordan was asked how GOP candidates should handle the "messaging" around the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Some Republican candidates masked their true abortion positions after the ruling.
"Lean into it!" Jordan advised candidates. "We're the pro-life party. We're going to protect the sanctity of human life and Democrats have the radical position! They're the ones that think that you should be able to take the unborn child's life right up until their birthday, for goodness sake!"
"That is frightening, so lean into it!" he continued. "We're the party that's going to protect the sanctity of human life like we've always been. This was a huge win for the precious nature of human life and I don't think we should shy away from it."
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), accused Democrats of supporting a "Chinese genocide bill" because they are trying to codify abortion rights.
During an interview on Fox News, host Mike Emmanuel told Emmer that multiple Republicans had scrubbed any mention of abortion rights from their campaign websites after the U.S. Supreme Court upended women's reproductive rights.
"I trust our candidates to know their districts and know how they're going to appeal to their voters, to the voters that are going to turn out in November and elect them to the next Congress," Emmer opined. "That being said, if Democrats want to make abortion the main issue when every poll we have seen says that the economy and the cost of living is the number one issue, good luck to them trying to defend their extreme position."
"Every one of them voted for what I call the 'Chinese genocide bill,' which would allow abortion up to moments before a child takes its first breath," he ranted. "I think our candidates know how to message that and they'll be just fine in the midterms."
Members of the Texas State Board of Education heard from an angry mother on Tuesday who said that first graders should not learn about Mahatma Gandhi because she believes it's part of critical race theory.
"You refer to our flag, bonnets and mockingbirds as a significant symbol to a Texas community," the mother opined. "No, these are emblems of identity and instill pride and connection with our home."
She said that learning about "the importance of collaborating with various cultures" was inappropriate because children should learn about their own "culture" first.
"This revision wants to teach a first grader who is still putting notes to the tooth fairy under her pillow about following Gandhi's lead to a peaceful protest," Jenna gasped. "A first grader! CRT is already rampant and baked into our curriculum and we don't want to be good little global citizens where our borders are considered a military zone."
"It's a border and it's good!" she exclaimed. "Teach that. This is the land of the free, home of the brave. Be brave!"
State Board of Education Member Marisa B. Perez-Diaz observed that the witness had been unable to point to specific Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) that contain the standards that she was complaining about.
"Be specific about what you're talking about so that we understand that you actually have a legitimate concern or it's not something you're just hearing and reading and repeating," Perez-Diaz advised. "I guess I want to understand what on the history of how borders were created do you know about?"
"I'm not an expert," Jenna shot back. "I don't appreciate your, um, belittling. I didn't come here with a Ph.D. and I didn't come up here as an educator or somebody on one of these work groups. I'm coming up here as a parent."
Perez-Diaz insisted that she was not belittling the parent.
"You just told our chair that you'd read it somewhere or you heard it, you don't know," the board member explained. "And that is not a belittling. I'm just acknowledging what you have yourself said."
Perez-Diaz added: "My point in asking you the question about borders is that is a clear example of why we need the standards the way that they have been written because this country did not always have borders. This country, we're sitting on stolen land."
Members of the audience erupted at the mention of "stolen land," forcing the chair to call for quiet.
"That isn't something that is in the standards," Perez-Diaz noted. "But what is in the standards is understanding our indigenous roots and understanding how indigenous communities have been impacted and those sorts of pieces of our history are very important."
"And so, again, I ask, what do you remember about learning about indigenous histories?" she wondered.
"I don't remember very much about indigenous histories," the witness admitted. "I'm sorry I can't answer your question about what I learned about indigenous communities and the border. I know our border is open right now and thousands are flooding over!"
Michigan state Sen. Tom Barrett, a Republican congressional candidate, reportedly removed the "values" section of his campaign website that revealed he opposes abortion rights.
The Detroit Newsfirst reported over the weekend that Barrett's campaign had updated his website to remove the "values" portion "that touted his anti-abortion position and history with the pro-life movement."
In a statement to the paper, Barrett insisted that he continues to oppose abortion rights.
"I don't watch my own website every day, so I don't know," Barrett explained. "But I am sure we probably were updating things based upon the issues that were most salient right now, which are inflation, cost of living, crime, border security. Those are really the four pillars that are the leading issues that voters are most concerned with."
According to the report, the section of the website that was removed said that Barrett and his wife "will always work to protect life from conception."
Barrett's Democratic opponent, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), suggested that the Republican candidate was attempting to hide his anti-abortion position following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down federal abortion rights.
"My guess is he's taken a few polls, he's watched a few news cycles and he and his political consultants are trying to hide his real position when he's been way out there on this (issue) for a long time and talked about being a part of the right to life movement since he was in college," Slotkin told the paper. "You can't have it both ways with that kind of extreme position. You can't try and hide it at the 11th hour."
But Barrett claimed that his policy positions were clear to voters.
"I've been publicly pro-life," he asserted. "People can see my very public remarks on this, and that hasn't changed."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said a bill that would prevent gender-affirming treatment for transgender children is part of a "spiritual war" and her "Christian faith."
During an interview with Human Events podcast host Jack Posobiec, Greene explained that the local SWAT team had been wrongly called to her home on two occasions because she was a victim of a tactic known as "swatting."
Greene attributed the dangerous prank to pro-transgender activists who disagree with her bill to outlaw gender-affirming treatment for children. The lawmaker complained that MSNBC had accused her of "targeting" transgender kids.
"Complete and total lie," she insisted. "If anything, all I'm trying to do is say, look, leave kids alone, let them grow up before they make these permanent changes to their body. Radical, awful changes that they cannot undo."
"I don't know how we got in a place where my stance is controversial," she continued. "I think it just shows you, we are in a true spiritual war in America. And you can see the attacks on me are proof of it."
Greene added: "I think it's so important for everyone to realize this is the world we live in today. So we basically need to understand how to get comfortable being uncomfortable because if you're in the fight, if you're trying to protect kids and you're trying to do what's right, if you're a Christian and you're trying to live out your Christian faith, you're going to be attacked for it."
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) refused on Tuesday to say if his ultimate goal is to ban all abortions in Florida.
While briefly speaking to reporters, DeSantis admitted that he wanted more legislation to restrict abortion rights.
"We are happy that we were able to achieve [anti-abortion laws] and we look forward and we welcome future endeavors, but this is -- we realize there's still going to be fight on the legal end," DeSantis said.
"What would you like to see as an ultimate end to abortion?" reporter John Kennedy asked.
But the governor refused to answer and quickly walked out of the room.
