Before ex-girlfriend's new allegation, Walker said he'd never paid for an abortion

Georgia Republican Senate nominee and abortion-rights opponent Herschel Walker explicitly said in June that he had never paid for or caused anyone to have an abortion. The Daily Beast is reporting that a woman has come forward to counter those claims.

In a story published on Oct. 3, the media outlet reported that it had been told by an ex-girlfriend of Walker’s that in 2009, her relationship with Walker had resulted in pregnancy; that he had urged her to have an abortion, and that she had wanted to have one herself; and that he had reimbursed her for the $575 procedure, travel, and recovery costs with a $700 personal check that he sent to her tucked into a get-well card.

As the Democratic Party of Georgia reminded voters on its website in September, Walker has said that the lack of a national abortion ban is “a problem.” He has said, “There’s no exception in my mind” when it comes to banning the procedure and has referred to the biblical commandment “Thou shalt not kill” in response to reporters trying to pin him down on his position.

Walker tweeted out a statement in response to the Daily Beast story that called it “a flat-out lie”: “This is another repugnant hatchet job from a democrat activist disguised as a reporter who has obsessively attacked my family and tried to tear me down since this race started. … Now, they’re using an anonymous source to further slander me. They will do anything to hold onto power. It’s disgusting, gutter politics.” He promised to file a defamation lawsuit against the Daily Beast on Oct. 4.

Walker as recently as June explicitly denied any personal involvement in anyone having an abortion. At a Road to Majority conference in Nashville, Tennessee, hosted by the anti-LGBTQ Faith & Freedom Coalition, he was recorded in a stealth video by Lauren Windsor, creator of the anti-Republican sting operation The Undercurrent, as she directly asked him about his past.

“I don’t want it to come off as rude at all but, you’ve never, like, funded an abortion — ?” Windsor asks.

“No,” Walker replies.

“— or caused somebody to have an abortion? Because I just, you know, the stuff about your children. You’re standing up and you’re being a good man — ” Windsor presses.

“And I’ve been doing that forever, and that’s why I said, that’s why I said — that’s what I told them. I take care of all my kids. If you look at that report, it’ll show you.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgCAdzHSqMo

Windsor released the video in July. At the time, Walker was under fire for apparently lying to his own campaign staff about having fathered three children out of wedlock. Windsor urged Twitter users, “ICYMI, bookmark this clip wherein Herschel Walker denies ever having paid for or caused an abortion.”

The Daily Beast article noted that the outlet had asked him in June about whether he had any awareness of past sexual partners having an abortion and that Walker had said no.

Walker’s campaign did not immediately respond to an American Independent Foundation request for comment for this story.

On Fox News on Monday night, host Sean Hannity asked Walker about the $700 check, saying, “Is there anybody you can remember sending that much money to?” Walker did not directly address the question, instead saying: “Well, I send money to a lot of people. … You know, I do scholarship for kids. I give money to people all the time, ’cause I’m always helping people. I believe in being generous. God has blessed me, I want to bless others.”

Walker has denied all accusations made against him in the past, including allegations of domestic abuse by his former wife, Cindy Grossman. He told Axios in December 2021: “I’m always accountable to whatever I’ve ever done. And that’s what I tell people: I’m accountable to it.”

In posts to Twitter on Monday night and Tuesday morning, Walker’s son Christian pushed back against Walker’s claims of innocence, writing: “I know my mom and I would really appreciate if my father Herschel Walker stopped lying and making a mockery of us. You’re not a ‘family man’ when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence.”

Walker has frequently lied to voters, overstating his work as a co-chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition; falsely claiming to have graduated from college; making dishonest claims about being valedictorian of his high school class; and vastly exaggerating his business achievements and charitable efforts.

Republican leaders are still supporting Walker, who is running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in the general election. Warnock has been running ads criticizing Walker’s support for a total abortion ban.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.