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Another woman has come forward with claims that Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker – who has expressed anti-abortion positions – pressured her to have an abortion nearly three decades ago.
The woman, who was not identified or shown on camera, shared her story Wednesday afternoon at a press conference held in attorney Gloria Allred’s Los Angeles office.
She said she met Walker, who was married at the time, in the 1980s when he played for the Cowboys and she lived in Dallas. They started a romantic relationship in 1987, and she found out in 1993 that she was pregnant.
She said she was not sure what to do but that Walker encouraged her to have an abortion and gave her cash to do so.
“I went to a clinic in Dallas, but I simply couldn’t go through with it. I left the clinic in tears,” she said during the press conference. “When I told Herschel what had happened, he was upset and said that he was going to go back with me to the clinic the next day for me to have the abortion. He then drove me to the clinic the following day and waited for hours in the parking lot until I came out.
“I was devastated because I felt that I had been pressured into having an abortion,” she said.
The woman said she is not revealing her name or face to protect herself and her family from potential retaliation.
To support the claim, Allred held up a hotel receipt from the woman’s stay in Mankato, Minnesota when Walker was at training camp while with the Vikings as well as a photo of Walker lying on what Allred said was the hotel room bed. Allred said other “exhibits” are greeting cards, including one signed with “H”. Copies of these documents were not provided to reporters who were invited to participate in the press conference through Zoom.
The revelation comes just three weeks after the Daily Beast reported that Walker paid a woman to have an abortion in 2009. The woman was not identified in the first report but later revealed that she is the mother of one of Walker’s children after Walker denied her story.
Walker denied the new claims as well. He told reporters on the campaign trail Wednesday that the allegations were “foolishness,” but reporters there say he did not take questions.
“I’ve already told people this is a lie, and I’m not going to entertain this and continue to carry the lie along,” he said. “And I also wanted to let you know I didn’t kill JFK either.”
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was back in Georgia to campaign again for Walker, compared the allegations involving Walker to claims Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh faced during his confirmation hearing.
“I’ve seen this movie before, folks,” Graham said, dismissing them as a partisan attack.
But the woman said she decided to share her story after seeing Walker deny the first claim he paid for a former girlfriend to have an abortion. She said she was particularly struck by his comments claiming to not sign cards with an initial.
She said she does not have partisan motives, saying she voted for former President Donald Trump in both elections.
“Herschel Walker is a hypocrite and he is not fit to be a U.S. senator. We don’t need people in the U.S. Senate who profess one thing and do another. Herschel Walker says he is against women having an abortion, but he pressured me to have one,” she said.
Voting in Georgia’s midterm election is already well underway. The three-week early voting period started last week, with turnout soaring above the 2018 level. Election Day is Nov. 8.
Walker is challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is running for a full six-year term in what is considered one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.
“We know Herschel Walker has a problem with the truth, a problem answering questions, and a problem taking responsibility for his actions,” Rachel Petri, Warnock’s deputy campaign manager, said in a statement Wednesday. “Today’s new report is just the latest example of a troubling pattern we have seen play out again and again and again. Herschel Walker shouldn’t be representing Georgians in the U.S. Senate.”
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.
