Does a bombshell abortion report spell defeat for Herschel Walker?

He's currently trailing his Democratic opponent by roughly five points

Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock.
(Image credit: Illustrated | AP Images, Getty Images, Library of Congress)

In September 2009, Herschel Walker — the former college and professional football star and now Republican nominee for Senate in Georgia — paid for his girlfriend to have an abortion, The Daily Beast reported Monday. Publicly, Walker is anti-abortion and has advocated for a national ban with no exceptions.

The woman said that though they are no longer dating, she remains in contact with Walker, and told the Daily Beast she came forward to discuss the abortion because "I just can't with the hypocrisy anymore. We all deserve better." She provided the Daily Beast with a $575 receipt from an abortion clinic; a bank deposit receipt showing the image of a $700 check from Walker; and a "get well" card signed by Walker. The woman said Walker encouraged her to get the abortion because it was "not the right time" for him to have a child, and she agreed. Robert Ingram, a lawyer for Walker and his campaign, denied the report, calling it a "false story." After its publication, Walker released a statement decrying the article as a "flat-out lie," and said he planned to sue the Daily Beast for "this defamatory lie." During an interview Wednesday morning, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade asked Walker if he had figured out the woman's identity, to which he responded, "Not at all."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.