“The View” co-host Sara Haines claimed there is “no such thing as people having late-term abortions” during Wednesday’s episode of the daytime talk show.
Haines would go on to declare that the GOP claim that the Democratic Party supports abortions in the late stage of pregnancy is a “myth” designed to achieve a political outcome. She ultimately admitted that 1.3% of abortions are late-term abortions but employed that statistic to double down on her original point.
Haines also argued that late-term abortions are only done for “heartbreaking medical reasons.”
The co-host’s statements came up during a segment on remarks from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on a potential Republican bill to enact a federal limit on abortion past 15 weeks of pregnancy. Of course, the ladies of “The View” vehemently disagreed with Graham’s proposed legislation, something he claimed would go to a vote if his party took a majority in Congress this November.
Though a couple of the co-hosts sarcastically thanked the Senator for energizing Democratic voters into showing up to stop pro-life Republicans from infringing on their right to choose.
Haines took aim at Graham’s bill, beginning with a criticism of it for leaving room for red states and their more stringent abortion restrictions, while keeping more pro-choice states from allowing it past 15 weeks.
“The way he’s written this, it will allow for the states that have stricter rules – those 6-week bans – they’ll say, ‘Oh well that’s fine.’ But then if you’re more liberal than that, he’s gonna say, ‘No, you gotta come back.’ So he also cherry-picked the way it applies,” Haines argued.
The co-host then asserted that Graham justified his pro-life bill by way of a political “myth.” She stated, “He calls it a late-term, um, late-term abortion act – by the way 15 weeks for anyone that doesn’t know, is one week into your second trimester. And just to clear up a often-referenced myth that is used to get a certain political outcome, there is no such thing as people having late-term abortions.”
“Say that again,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg told Haines, to re-emphasize the point. More emphatically, Haines declared, “There is no such thing as people having late-term abortions.” The audience followed up with applause.
Debunking the claim she just made, she continued, “1.3! 1.3 percent of abortions are performed at greater than 21 weeks, and usually for heartbreaking medical reasons.” Again, Whoopi wanted it re-emphasized, so Haines repeated her claims. “That is only done for heartbreaking medical reasons.”
“I have yet to see one situation where someone decides that,” she continued, adding, “That is a myth being shopped around to get a certain political outcome.”
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Earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported on NPR’s findings that “collectively 3% of abortions occur at 18 weeks of pregnancy and beyond.” NPR, like Haines, was looking to categorize late-term abortions as a negligible part of the abortion debate.
Though as one prominent Twitter account noted at the time, “But the reason they only show % is because 10% of the 800k yearly abortions is 80K! For context: There are only 12K firearm homicides in the US each year. So 80K mostly elective abortions after the first trimester can be considered a rather significant amount for many people.”
Haines continued with her figures, stating, “And 91 percent of all abortions are performed in the first trimester.” She then stated, “So until we are all clear on the information and data, we should not be toying with this because it’s being falsely shopped around.”
