Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/Zumapress
At last week’s presidential debate, Donald Trump described Hillary Clinton’s position on late-term abortion as “in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb.”
The erroneous claim garnered widespread criticism, as medical professionals and others explained that there is no such thing as an “abortion” at nine months.
There is no such thing as a ninth month abortion – I’m a doctor who trained in late term abortions #debate2016
— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) October 20, 2016
FYI: “ripping baby from womb in 9th month” is called C-section. #VaginaEducation
— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) October 20, 2016
And yet, this morning on an episode of The 700 Club with the Reverend Pat Robertson, a televangelist and CEO of Regent University, Trump repeated his medically dubious assertion and said he received widespread praise from the religious community, including phone calls from many pastors and priests, for his abortion comments at the debate.
Robertson kicked off the exchange with a graphic description of “partial-birth abortion,” an imprecise term often used by anti-abortion activists to describe third-trimester abortions, which often occur because of severe fetal abnormality or the pregnant woman’s health complication. Robertson said Clinton “has defended that barbaric practice of partial-birth and then she defended Planned Parenthood.”
Trump agreed and then continued the attack on Clinton: “According to the rules of Hillary…you can take that baby at nine months and you can abort. And a day prior to birth you could take that baby, and I said it’s unacceptable.”
You can watch the full exchange above.
