Report: Herschel Walker Paid for Girlfriend's Abortion Mr. Walker called the report a lie after The Daily Beast, which also broke news about Mr. Walker's children with other women, said that a former girlfriend had the procedure in 2009.
The Daily Beast reported on Monday that Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Georgia and an outspoken opponent of abortion, paid for his then-girlfriend to have an abortion in 2009. Mr. Walker said that the claim was "an outright lie."
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous because she was worried about her privacy, told The Daily Beast that she and Mr. Walker had gotten pregnant while they were dating, but they both agreed not to go through with the pregnancy. She said that Mr. Walker, who was not married at the time, paid for the procedure. This was reported by a news outlet.
The Daily Beast reported that the woman gave evidence in the form of a copy of a $700 check from Mr. Walker, a receipt from the abortion clinic, and a "get well" card from Mr. Walker. The news outlet put out a picture of the card, which it said had Mr. Walker's signature on it.
Mr. Walker quickly put out a statement on Twitter and said that he might sue The Daily Beast for libel on Tuesday morning. He said, "I deny this as strongly as I can." "It's disgusting that politics are this low."
Since he started running for Senate in 2021, Mr. Walker has been hit with a string of potentially damaging stories about his personal life. The Daily Beast said in June that Mr. Walker, who has criticized Black families with absentee fathers, had had a child outside of a marriage. Later that week, the news source said that he had two more children that he had never talked about in public or to his campaign staff.
Christian Walker, Mr. Walker's son, weighed in on Monday evening on Twitter. He said that "every member" of Mr. Walker's family had told him not to run for office. Christian Walker has not backed his father's campaign or spoken in public on his father's behalf.
"I don't care about someone with a bad history who owns up to their mistakes. But how DARE YOU LIE and act like you're some kind of "moral, Christian, righteous man," he asked. "You have spent your whole life RUINING the lives of other people."
Mr. Walker replied with a single tweet: "No matter what, I LOVE my son."
In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News on Monday night, Mr. Walker said he did not know the woman described in The Daily Beast article. When asked about the rumored $700 payment for the abortion, he said, "I send money to a lot of people."
"I've never told anyone to have an abortion, and I've never paid for one," Mr. Walker said. "They want this seat," he said about the Democrats. But they've given me even more energy right now."
Other parts of Mr. Walker's life story have also been found to be exaggerated or made up. He said he worked for the police, but he never did. He lied about how a chicken business he started got started. He said he gave some of the money he made from his food distribution business to charity, but there isn't much evidence that the charities got the money.
Mr. Walker has made his opposition to abortion a key part of his campaign message. He has said many times that he wants to ban abortions, even if they are done to prevent rape or incest. He has also backed a bill by South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy everywhere in the country. There are exceptions to Mr. Graham's bill for rape, incest, and pregnancies that put the mother's health at risk.
In May, a few days before Georgia's GOP Senate primary, Mr. Walker told reporters in Macon, Ga., "I don't see any exceptions." "You can't tell what a child will grow up to be."
One of the most watched Senate races in the country is in Georgia. Most polls show that Senator Raphael Warnock, who is running against Mr. Walker on the Democratic side, and Mr. Walker are almost tied. A spokesperson for Mr. Warnock's campaign didn't want to say anything.