“Fox News Sunday” host Martha MacCallum pressed Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on protecting the “lives and safety” of an unborn child.
MacCallum played footage of Republican Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears arguing that 46% of the over 15,000 abortions performed in 2019 involved a black patient, arguing that abortion has caused the black community to lose “so many black lives that matter.”
“Do you think she has a point in terms of losing so many black lives that matter?” MacCallum asked. “I’ve heard that sentiment from other people as well.”
“I think that’s a very specious argument that’s used to cloak what I think is a very deeply disturbing approach to this conversation,” Abrams replied. “In fact, in my tenure in the legislature, I beat back a bill that was designed to deny access to this medical decision using race as a divisive tactic, and I reject that.”
She added that black women in Georgia suffer from the highest maternal mortality rate and are three times more likely to die than white women. She also pointed to studies suggesting black women are the most underserved by their medical providers. In 2020, the maternal mortality rate for black women was 55.3 deaths per 100,00 birth, 2.9 times higher than the rate among white women in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (RELATED: ‘Stop Saying Oh God!’: Fox News Contributors Spar Over SCOTUS Ruling)
She further said Sears and other lawmakers need to address all “racial dimensions,” including black women having the least access to Medicaid and healthcare, as well as being underpaid.
“We cannot cherry-pick when we decide to pay attention to the lives and safety of women, and that is the deepest challenge that we face here in Georgia,” she added.
“But what about the lives and safety of the child?” MacCallum asked.
Abrams responded that Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who defeated her in the 2018 gubernatorial race, has “refused” to expand Medicaid and support women at “every stage of their lives.” She claimed if lawmakers care about the well-being of women, then they need to care in every circumstance.
“I understand, but I asked you if you believe in it all the way up to nine months. You’re talking about caring about the lives of women, I’m just asking at what point do you start to care about the life of that baby — of that baby girl in some cases,” MacCallum pressed.
Abrams said that abortion is a difficult medical decision and should not be politicized by lawmakers. MacCallum suggested that Abrams supports abortion up to the final month of pregnancy.
“That is not what I said, I said this is a medical decision,” Abrams pushed back. “And the medical decisions that have to be made have to be made in context. This is a specious approach to try to denude the entire argument. And the reality is, abortion and reproductive care is personal and it is singular and it should be made between a woman and her doctor. I do not have either the experience or the capacity to know what is happening with others.”