Trump criticizes Virginia Dems over late-term abortion bill
President Trump is criticizing Virginia Democrats for a proposed bill that would ease restrictions on late-term abortions in the state.
Trump in an interview with the Daily Caller published Wednesday predicted that recent comments about the bill are “going to lift up the whole pro-life movement like maybe it’s never been lifted up before.”
{mosads}Trump commented on video of Virginia Del. Kathy Tran (D) that recently went viral in which Virginia’s House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert (R) questioned the delegate about when an abortion would be permissible under her legislation.
“Where it’s obvious that a woman is about to give birth … she has physical signs that she is about to give birth would that still be a point at which she could request an abortion if she was so certified? If she’s dilating?” Gilbert asked.
“Mr. Chairman, that would be a decision that the doctor, the physician, and the woman would make at that point,” Tran responded.
“I understand that,” Gilbert said. “I’m asking if your bill allows that.”
“My bill would allow that, yes,” she said in the video.
“I thought it was terrible,” Trump said to the Daily Caller on Tran’s statements. “Do you remember when I said Hillary Clinton was willing to rip the baby out of the womb? That’s what it is, that’s what they’re doing, it’s terrible.”
Trump made the statement about Clinton’s stance on late term abortion during a debate in 2016.
Trump also suggested that Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) deserves criticism for his recent comments about the bill, although he said he has not heard any of his recent remarks.
The Virginia bill would eliminate the requirement for second trimester abortions to happen at state-licensed hospitals and reduce the amount of doctors necessary to determine the need for a third trimester abortion from three to one.
The bill is unlikely to pass given that Republicans control the House of Delegates and it was tabled on Monday.
Tran released a statement Wednesday saying that the backlash to her comments show that lawmakers need to “trust women to make their own healthcare decisions.”
“These decisions are personal and private, and they are made in consultation with doctors who are using their best medical judgement,” she said. “I regret that these partisan games have taken the focus away from where it should be: on the Virginian women who have asked for this bill to get politicians out of their private medical decisions.”