Donald Trump Says New York and Virginia Passed Laws Allowing Abortion 'Up Until The Moment Of Birth,' But Is It True?

President Donald Trump said Friday at the March for Life event that New York and Virginia passed laws allowing abortions "up until the moment of birth." However, both states have very strict measures regulating abortions performed after 24 weeks.

"Nearly every top Democrat in Congress now supports tax-payer-funded abortion all the way up until the moment of birth," he told the pro-life audience in Washington, D.C.

Trump singled out New York and Virginia for their laws that allow abortion after 24 weeks. "Last year, lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother's womb right up until delivery," he said.

In January 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Reproductive Health Act, which allows healthcare practitioners to perform an abortion after 24 weeks. However, if the procedure is done after 24 weeks, there must be "an absence of fetal viability, or the abortion is necessary to protect the patient's life or health," according to "the practitioner's reasonable and good faith professional judgment based on the facts of the patient's case."

Trump also mentioned Virginia during his appearance at the event, particularly Democratic Governor Ralph S. Northam, in reference to a proposed late-term abortion bill from last year. "The governor stated that he would execute a baby after birth, you remember that," the president alleged. "Senate Democrats even blocked legislation that would give medical care to babies who survived attempted abortions."

As reported by The Washington Post, a spokeswoman for the Virginia governor at said at the time that Republican critics took what Northam previously commented about the issue out of context, and characterized the idea that he would approve infanticide as "disgusting."

According to Virginia law, an abortion or termination of pregnancy after the second trimester of pregnancy is lawful in the state under unique circumstances, such as "if the operation is performed in a hospital licensed by the Virginia State Department of Health or operated by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services"; and "the physician and two consulting physicians certify and so enter in the hospital record of the woman, that in their medical opinion, based upon their best clinical judgment, the continuation of the pregnancy is likely to result in the death of the woman or substantially and irremediably impair the mental or physical health of the woman." Reportedly, there is no law in the state that permits the killing of babies following birth, and that no Democratic lawmakers back that.

As for the president's latest comments on abortion, Kristyn Brandi, a New Jersey OB-GYN and board chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health, told Newsweek late Friday afternoon: "What the president said today was inaccurate and inflammatory. That is not how abortion care works. That is not how health care works. As a physician, I know that what people who have abortions need is care and support, not more hateful rhetoric."