DeSantis Pushes Baseless Claim ‘Liberal States’ Conduct ‘Post-Birth Abortions’: ‘I Think That That’s Wrong’

Presidential hopeful and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) repeated the groundless claim to CNN’s Jake Tapper that “some liberal states” allow “post-birth abortions.”

In an exclusive interview aired on Tuesday, Tapper asked DeSantis about his anti-abortion stance. The governor reiterated his opposition to abortion and then brought up so-called “post-birth abortion” — the horrific idea that a baby is legally “killed” after the mother has given birth.

“So, I said I’m pro-life, I will be a pro-life president, and we will support pro-life policies…I think the danger from Congress is, if we lose the election, they’re going to try to nationalize abortion up until the moment of birth. And in some liberal states, you actually have post-birth abortions and I think that that’s wrong,” DeSantis said.

After the interview, Tapper said he asked the DeSantis campaign “what exactly the governor was referring to when he was referring to post-birth abortion. They said it was a reference to when an infant survives an abortion procedure and life-saving  medical care is not provided.”

The New York Times, among others, has debunked the draconian claims of infanticide, saying, “Infants are rarely born alive after abortion procedures, and if they are, doctors do not kill them.”

DeSantis vowed to end what he called “abortion tourism.”

“Also with respect to the military…we’re going to reverse the abortion tourism policy in the Department of Defense. They’re actually paying people to go and get abortions with American tax dollars as part of the military. They won’t even pay you, you lose a loved one and you don’t even get that type of time off to do funerals. And, so, we’re going to continue to stand for life and we’re going to make sure that everybody knows that.”

Notably, military hospitals only perform abortions “if the mother’s life is endangered or in cases of rape or incest, and until now, government-funded travel could be used for abortions only under those reasons as well,” according to Military.com. The Pentagon earlier this year introduced a new policy in which it will pay for travel for service members who must seek fertility treatments or an abortion out of state due to the end of Roe v. Wade.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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