Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz skillfully combated right-wing talking points about reproductive rights on Sunday, calling them “a distraction” from the reality of women’s health care declining as a result of restrictive anti-abortion policies.
The Democratic vice presidential candidate spoke with host Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday” as part of the ticket’s broader media blitz one month before the election. In addition to issues like the Middle East conflict, the economy and his surface-level misstatements, Bream grilled Walz on his stance regarding abortion rights.
The governor stood his ground in defense of a Minnesota law he signed that codifies abortion protections ― a law that Bream argued is more lenient than what Roe v. Wade concluded. Walz said the law is in alignment with all care that physicians provide “in any circumstance for any medical case.”
“This is a distraction from the real issue here, is women being forced into miscarriages, women being forced to go back home, get sepsis, potentially die like we saw in cases in Texas, and maternal mortality rates in Texas have skyrocketed off the charts because of this,” he continued. “This is bad policy.”
Donald Trump, who set up the Supreme Court under his presidency to overturn Roe v. Wade, has said this time around that he would not sign a national abortion banbecause it should be left to the states. He has also publicly supported fertility treatments, Bream noted.
When the Fox host asked if Walz was calling that a “flat-out lie,” the governor unequivocally said yes.
“They may see this as an election issue. We see it as a right of women to make their own bodily decisions,” Walz said. “Let’s be clear here, trying to cut hairs on an issue on this is not where the American public’s at. They want the restoration of Roe v. Wade. Vice President Harris said that she’ll sign it.”
Later in the interview, Bream asked Walz about some of his past misstatements, including about infertility treatments he and his wife underwent to have their children. Walz originally said he and his wife, Gwen, went through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) ― an issue that Republicans have found themselves divided on ― when they had actually gone through intrauterine insemination (IUI).
“I gotta be honest with you Shannon, I don’t think people care if I used IUI or IVF when we talk about this. What they understand is Donald Trump would resist those things.”
