2nd Herschel Walker abortion accuser tells her 'very menacing' story on national TV
Two women have now said Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker got them pregnant during long relationships, urged them to get an abortion, and reimbursed them for the procedure. After the first woman told her story, and Walker — who supports hardline abortion bans — denied it, the second woman came forward last week and spoke to reporters over the phone to protect her identity. After Walker called her story a lie as well, the woman showed her face on ABC News Tuesday night.
"I've kept this to myself for 30 years," she told ABC News. "I protected him, and I wanted this to remain private."
The woman, who asked ABC News to continue calling her "Jane Doe," says she and Walker had a six year love affair in Dallas in the late 1980s and early '90s, when Walker was married. She said the relationship was not a secret on her end — she introduced Walker to her parents, at his request. But things changed after she got pregnant in 1993.
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"I had a great life, but when I found out I was pregnant, I wanted to have the child," Jane Doe told ABC's Frontline. Walker, on the other hand, "was very clear that he did not want me to have the child," and "he said that because of his wife's family and powerful people around him, that I would not be safe and that the child would not be safe." It was "very menacing, and I felt threatened, and I thought I had no choice," she said. She went to an abortion clinic and couldn't go through with it, she recounted, but then Walker convinced her to go back with him, waited outside while she had the abortion, and gave her cash to pay for the procedure.
Walker said in a statement Tuesday that "this was a lie a week ago and it is a lie today," calling it an election ploy by Democrats "and some woman I do not know." Jane Doe said this isn't about politics — she voted for Donald Trump twice, she said, and is a political independent — but she would like to see Walker defeated because "I think honesty matters. I think it is not appropriate for a United States senator to say one thing and do another." You can watch the longer version of the interview at Frontline.
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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