Dasha Burns, a reporter for NBC News, responded swiftly to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R) assertion that some Democrats embrace infanticide.
Burns asked DeSantis during the interview if he would veto any countrywide abortion prohibitions if elected president. She intended to probe DeSantis on his opinion of whether or not abortion law should be left to the discretion of states.
DeSantis said he would be a pro-life president who would back such legislation.
The supposed “reporter,” Burns, jumped in to defend the Democrat stance on the controversial issue.
She disagreed with DeSantis, saying that late-term abortions (1.3% overall) occur at 21 weeks or beyond.
DeSantis said that their position is that no legal safeguards should exist until that time.
Burns said that the Democrats were not actively working toward this goal and that
late-term abortions are very uncommon.
Contrary to what Burns states, however, there is evidence that Democrats favor abortion up to viability, about 23–24 weeks.
Former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tim Ryan, who lost last year, does not support restricting abortion in any way. Ryan thinks that men should respect what women want. Not all Democrats can be summed up in Ryan, but Democrats in the post-Roe v. Wade era often say they don’t have a definite position on when abortion should be outlawed because they don’t want to be seen as putting limits on women.
The Democratic Party’s post-Roe efforts to enact the Women’s Health Reproduction Act provide the strongest evidence against Burns’ allegation.
For any reason, the law would legalize abortion on demand for pregnant women. It would also legalize late-term abortions if physicians determined that their pregnant patients’ lives or health were in danger if the pregnancy continued.
Without a clear definition of “health” in the law, physicians may be able to terminate pregnancies late in their term if doing so would not endanger the mother’s emotional or social stability.
