White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre falsely claimed on “The View” Thursday that Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham plans to completely ban abortion with his new proposal.
The press secretary said that Graham and other Republicans are calling to impose a complete ban on the procedure at a national level, citing Graham’s proposed legislation, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that intends to enact a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks gestation.
“They want a national ban on abortion and it’s not gonna matter if you’re in a red state or a blue state, that means it will be completely banned. That is their message. That’s what they’re doing here and we have to remember that we can’t allow that to take us back. We cannot be moving backwards.”
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Jean-Pierre then claimed that Republicans are targeting the right to same-sex marriage and contraception, a belief that gained prominence since Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that argued the court should reject the doctrine of substantive due process, which the court used to grant the right to contraception and same-sex marriage. (RELATED: ‘Can Feel Excruciating Pain’: Sen. Lindsey Graham Defends 15-Week Abortion Limit)
“And it’s not just abortion. It’s gonna be on marriage, it’s gonna be on contraception, it’s gonna be on our privacy and so we have to remember what is at stake for all of us as we move forward and so I want to call that out and also, Senator Graham had said maybe about a month ago that he believes when it comes to marriage, when it comes to abortion, it’s for states to decide. So Senator Graham, what changed?” she said.
Graham’s office told the Daily Caller not to “waste your breath waiting on a fact check” in response to the press secretary’s remarks.
The press secretary said at a Sept. 13 briefing that the proposed 15-week abortion ban is “radical” and “wildly out of touch” with the majority of Americans. Multiple polls found, however, that the majority of Americans do not support legalized abortion in the second and third trimesters.
Graham’s legislation also provides exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother, which is in bound with the majority of Americans.
The senator previously said the legislation will protect an unborn child from feeling “excruciating pain” during the procedure, citing a study that indicated that a child’s nerve endings are fully developed by 15 weeks, allowing them to feel pain.
“If you’re going to operate on the baby, which happens, to save the child’s life, to provide it medical treatment, the standard practice in medicine is to provide anesthesia,” Graham said during a Sept. 13 press conference. “Now why would you do that? You provide anesthesia because the science tells us at the 15-week period, the nerve endings of the baby are pretty well-developed and the child feels pain. So here’s our point. You have to provide anesthesia to keep the baby from feeling pain to help save its life. So should we as a nation be aborting babies that can feel excruciating pain from an abortion?”
The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.