Trump's debunked lie about Democrats wanting to 'execute' babies is his most unhinged yet

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris clashed in their first presidential debate ahead of the election, and one of the many topics they argued back and forth on was abortion.

During this part of the 90-minute debate hosted by ABC News at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Trump falsely claimed that Harris and Democratic-led states seek to pass laws that allow abortion up until the moment of birth as well as the execution of babies after birth.

It is illegal in all states to execute an infant after birth as this is classed as homicide and Trump's lie was instantly debunked.

Meanwhile, late-in-pregnancy abortions (after 21 weeks of pregnancy) account for less than 1 per cent of all abortions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As a result, Trump's claim has been widely fact-checked as false by a range of news organizations such as NBC, and CBC.

So what did Trump say on the topic of abortion exactly?

“The reason I’m doing that vote is because the plan is, as you know, the vote, is they have abortion in the ninth month, they even have, and you can look at the governor of West Virginia, the previous governor of West Virginia, not the current governor is doing an excellent job, but the governor before he said, the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby, in other words, we’ll execute the baby — and that’s why I did that, because that predominates, because they’re radical, the Democrats are radical in that,” Trump said.

While he also falsely claimed that Harris's running mate and Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz said "execution after birth" of babies "is okay."

"[H]er vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth — it's execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born — is OK. And that's not OK with me. Hence the vote," Trump said.

Walz has never said this, in fact, he signed a bill into Minnesota state law last year an update concerning medical care for infants born alive as a result of an abortion,

In the statute update, it says "all reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice…shall be taken by the responsible medical personnel to care for the infant who is born alive," as reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune.

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