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Tim Walz Misled Americans on His ‘Radical’ Abortion Record, Pro-Life Leaders Say

Michael Foust

Pro-life leaders say Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz misled Americans during Tuesday's vice presidential debate on the issue of abortion, asserting that he signed bills supporting late-term abortions that provide no protections for infants who survive failed abortions. In January 2023, he signed the Protect Reproductive Options Act (HF 1), which declared Minnesotans have a "fundamental right to reproductive health" for "terminating a pregnancy" and that contains no restrictions on abortion. 

In May 2023, he signed a bill that removed wording that had been on the books since 1976, requiring doctors to "preserve the life and health of the born-alive infant." The new law requires that doctors "care for the infant who is born alive."  

Norah O'Donnell of CBS News asked Walz to respond to charges by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump that Minnesota law allows abortion in the ninth month of a pregnancy.  

"That's not what the bill says," said Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president. 

"This is basic human right," he later added. "... We trust doctors." 

J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, then pressed Walz.

"As I read the Minnesota law that you signed into law, the statute that you signed into law, 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," Vance said. "That is, I think, whether it's not pro-choice or pro-abortion, that is fundamentally barbaric.

"Do you want to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions against their will?" Vance asked. "Because Kamala Harris has supported suing Catholic nuns to violate their freedom of conscience. We can be a big and diverse country where we respect people's freedom of conscience. And make the country more pro-baby and pro-family."

Walz, though, rejected Vance's charge.

"These are women's decisions to make about their healthcare decisions and the physicians who know best when they need to do this," Walz said, suggesting Vance was distorting the law.

Pro-life leaders say Vance was right.

"The legislation he signed replaced previous legislation that said that if indeed a baby was born after an abortion, reasonable medical efforts had to be taken to keep that baby alive," said seminary president Albert Mohler on his podcast, The Briefing. "If you take that language out, guess what? You have just changed the law."

Medical authorities in Minnesota "say as many as eight babies have died since that legislation was signed," Mohler said. 

"Tim Walz signed a law allowing the abortionist to withhold care and treatment from a baby who survives a botched abortion," said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. "That's no longer abortion but infanticide."

National Right to Life labeled Walz's record on the issue "radical." 

"Fact of basic record: In Minnesota, you can kill a baby in an abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, and multiple babies have been born alive after failed abortions and left to die," said Lila Rose of Live Action. "All under Tim Walz's leadership."

According to Google Trends, abortion has became the top searched political issue by state during the Vice Presidential debate compared to before the debate where other political issues such as crime, social security, health care, and unemployment were among the list. 

Abortion Google Trends

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Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla/Staff

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.