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- Former President Donald Trump inaccurately accused Democrats of killing babies "up until the moment of birth" at a rally in Iowa.
- He also falsely claimed that Virginia's governor supports executing babies "after birth."
- Fact-checkers have noted that both of these assertions are false.
Speaking to thousands of supporters at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, former President Donald Trump baselessly accused the "far-left" of aborting babies right up until the moment of birth and misleadingly alleged that one Democrat governor supports infanticide.
Trump told the crowd that the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, officially known as the Build Back Better Act, would force "taxpayers to fund the far left's extreme abortion agenda."
-Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 10, 2021
The bill, he said, would abolish the Hyde amendment. This controversial provision bars federal funds from being used for most abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or when the pregnant person's life is in danger.
There is a lack of consensus among Democrats about including the Hyde amendment in the reconciliation bill. Some moderates, including Sen. Joe Manchin, demand that it be a part of the package.
Progressive Democrats, like Rep. Pramila Jayapal, have said that they would not support a bill that includes the Hyde amendment, and President Joe Biden told reporters that he would sign it either way.
The abolition of the Hyde amendment, Trump claimed at the rally, would see Democrats "ripping babies from their mother's womb, right up until the moment of birth."
The amendment's focus is on funding and accessibility to abortions and does not refer extreme late-term abortions.
Trump has repeated the claim several times at campaign rallies that Democrats "rip" babies from the womb at the "moment of birth," and fact-checkers have consistently noted this as false.
Most abortions are performed in the earlier stages of pregnancy, with a minuscule percentage (about one percent) happening after the fetus reaches the point of viability. "The president is describing something that rarely happens and that no Democrat is calling for anyway," said The Washington Post.
At the Iowa rally, the former president went on to make an even wilder assertion about Democrats and their abortion positions. He said that some Democrats are "killing babies after birth," and falsely alleged that Virginia Governor Ralph Northam supports infanticide.
"You saw that?" In Virginia, the governor of Virginia, after birth," Trump told the crowd.
The former president previously made the misleading assertion during his State of Union address in 2019 and at a 2019 rally in El Paso, Texas, but fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked it then.
The accusation refers to Northam's comments on "third-trimester abortions" that are done in cases "where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that's nonviable," Reuters said.
Northam, a physician, never said he would sanction the execution of newborns, according to Politifact. The fact-checkers said: "What he did say is that in rare, late-pregnancy cases when fetuses are nonviable, doctors deliver the baby, keep it comfortable, resuscitate it if the mother wishes, and then have a 'discussion' with the mother."
During the rally, Insider reported that Trump also spread misinformation about widely disproved claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.