Stacey Abrams believes in abortion 'until the time of birth' in certain cases

Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor in the state of Georgia, recently distinguished herself from Republican incumbent Brian Kemp by insisting that she supports abortion even "until the time of birth" under certain conditions.

On Wednesday, Abrams made an appearance on the controversial women's talk show, "The View." In that conversation, Abrams positioned herself as radically pro-choice, calling abortion restrictions "artificial timelines."

"I believe that abortion is a medical decision, not a political decision," Abrams said. "And arbitrary, politically defined timelines are deeply problematic because they ignore the reality of medical and physiological issues.

"For example," she continued, "a six-week ban tells women they have to make reproductive choices before they know they're pregnant. And that arbitrariness extends into these artificial timelines.

"What I believe," she added, "is that it's a decision that should be made between a woman and her doctor, that viability is the metric, and that if a woman’s health or life is in danger, then viability extends until the time of birth."

She did not clarify how a baby who has already been born could present a threat to "a woman's health or life."

Abrams has been emphasizing the abortion issue in recent weeks after the Supreme Court Dobbs decision turned the abortion issue back to individual states. Georgia passed a fetal heartbeat bill back in 2019, and that law went into effect following the SCOTUS ruling. Gov. Kemp, who defeated Abrams in 2018, supports banning most abortions after six weeks.

Abrams claims to have evolved on the abortion issue herself. She has stated that she was raised in "a very religious family" and that her parents and her church community taught her that abortion was wrong. However, after she went away to college and interacted with people who shared her faith but who did not share her opinion about abortion, Abrams claims that her thinking slowly changed.

"Over the course of the next few years, I really started thinking about what role should the legislature play? What role should government play?" she said. "This is health care. This is about a woman’s right to control her body. … And that, for me, as a matter of faith, means that I don’t impose those value systems on others. More importantly, I protect her rights. I protect her humanity, and that should be my responsibility."

Just as it was four years ago, the Kemp/Abrams race is tight. The RealClearPolitics polling average has Kemp up just over 5 points. Kemp won in 2018 by a margin of about 55,000 votes, or less than 2%. Abrams continually challenged those results, alleging voter suppression.