Herschel Walker, who has vehemently opposed abortion rights as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia, paid for an abortion for his girlfriend in 2009, according to a report by The Daily Beast published late Monday.
In a statement following the news, Walker threatened to sue the news organization, denying all evidence.
“This is a flat-out lie — and I deny this in the strongest terms possible,” Walker told FOX 5 Atlanta.
The new allegations against Walker are the latest of past transgressions to have dogged his campaign for the U.S. Senate against Democrat incumbent Rep. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), including public acknowledgements made by Walker about fathering three children that he has not previously admitted to or even talked about in public circles.
As part of his campaign, Walker has openly supported a national ban on abortions with no exceptions for cases involving rape, incest or a woman’s health being at risk, a proposal that has emerged and is growing steam among GOP lawmakers since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
In reacting to The Daily Beast’s story about Walker having paid an old girlfriend to have an abortion, Walker’s democratic opponent Warnock has largely steered clear of the issue, at one point telling reporters when asked if he thinks it will impact Election Day results, “I’ll let the pundits decide.”
According to The Daily Beast, the woman was involved in a years-long relationship with Walker, which had continued after the abortion. She told The Daily Beast her main concern with revealing her identity was that she is the mother of one of his children.
According to the report, Walker has publicly acknowledged the child as his own and the woman involved has provided proof that she was in a long-term relationship with Walker and was the mother of his child.
