by Dear Friends:
Nearly 60 million people tuned into last night’s presidential debate in Philadelphia between Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat nominee, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate.
But what I’m writing you today is about neither political candidates nor political parties. Not even the election.
One of the more pointed parts of last night’s exchange involved the now half-century plus debate over the sanctity of life. Specifically, ABC moderator Linsey Davis erroneously stated, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.”
Ms. Davis is mistaken. Babies who are born after failed abortions have been legally abandoned and have died. That’s infanticide.
Earlier today, I sent a letter to Almin Karamehmedovic, the president of ABC News, and requested the network issue an immediate correction. I’m sharing a copy of that letter below.
Jim Daly
President, Focus on the Family
P.S. I hope you’ll take a moment to read the letter below, which I sent to Almin Karamehmedovic, the president of ABC News.
September 11, 2024
Almin Karamehmedovic
President
ABC News
7 West 66th Street
New York, NY 10023.
Dear Mr. Karamehmedovic:
During Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, debate co-moderator Linsey Davis attempted to fact-check the former president’s comments concerning the death of babies following failed abortions.
Ms. Davis stated: “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.”
We wish this was true. Sadly, it is not.
The Born-Alive Infant Protect Act of 2002 has proven inadequate in providing life-saving care for the hundreds of babies born following failed abortions. Tragically, Democrats — including Vice President Harris while serving in the United States Senate — have repeatedly blocked legislation (Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act) that would require doctors and health care professionals to “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of a child” born alive following an attempted abortion.
For example, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed legislation in his state last year that no longer requires lifesaving measures be taken to help children born after an abortion attempt. Records indicate that eight children in 2019 faced this gruesome fate – and five of them were left to die. No medical professional did anything to help sustain their lives.
During the debate, former President Trump referred to former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s cold and callous answer during a radio interview when he described the scene of a failed abortion where the child is delivered alive. ‘The infant would be delivered,” Northam said. “The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
What Governor Northam was describing, and the bill that Governor Walz signed last year, constitutes infanticide.
The moderators also chose to ignore the statistical reality of the tragedy of late-term abortion. They never fact-checked Vice President Harris’ claim that President Trump’s suggestion that women are having late-term abortion was somehow “insulting.” In truth, there are more than 50,000 abortion each year of babies after 15 weeks’ gestation and more than 10,000 after 20 weeks.
ABC News and Linsey Davis owe the American people an apology and an immediate correction. As the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously observed, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.”
Sincerely,
Jim Daly
President, Focus on the Family