A woman who accused Republican Senate hopeful Herschel Walker of pressuring her to have an abortion nearly three decades ago appeared on camera for the first time Tuesday and said she felt “threatened” by the former football star after she revealed to him she was pregnant.
In the Good Morning America interview, the woman elaborated on allegations she leveled anonymously a week ago at an event arranged by her attorney Gloria Allred. That’s when she said she had a years-long romantic relationship with Walker and that he urged her to have an abortion when she became pregnant in 1993.
The woman, who remained anonymous, said he drove her back to a Texas clinic to carry out the abortion after she initially decided against it. Walker is a staunch opponent of abortion rights and has called for a complete ban on the procedure, even in cases of rape or incest.
In a statement shortly after the interview aired, Walker said the claim was “a lie a week ago and it is a lie today.”
He also denied knowing the woman, who displayed a picture in the interview that showed the two together. Walker took aim at Allred, a Los Angeles attorney who often represents women in cases against high-powered men.
“Seven days before an election, the Democrats trot out Gloria Allred and some woman I do not know,” Walker said.
Walker’s campaign did not make him available to the media during two campaign stops, and he did not respond to questions while greeting supporters after a rally in Augusta. It has been several days since Walker spoke to journalists other than hand-picked conservative outlets.
Ahead of the Augusta event, several Walker supporters said the latest allegations did not have any effect on their opinions of him. They said they trust Walker when he says the woman’s claims are a lie and they believe he would represent them better in Washington than incumbent U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.
“I have faith in him; he’s been honest,” said Vicki Grant, who lives in Evans. “We all make mistakes, but he is much better than the alternative.”
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
In the interview that aired Tuesday, the woman said her relationship with Walker, who was married, changed after she became pregnant.
”He was very clear that he did not want me to have the child and he said that he said that because of his wife’s family and powerful people around him that I would not be safe and that the child would not be safe,” she said.
“That’s very menacing,” ABC reporter Juju Chang replied.
“It is very menacing. It is very menacing. And I felt threatened and I thought I had no choice,” she said.
She is the second woman to claim that Walker encouraged her to have an abortion after becoming pregnant by him. Another woman, who has declined to speak to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has said that Walker paid for her 2009 abortion and urged her to have a second. She and Walker have a child together.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released Monday shows Walker and his Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, are running neck and neck. Both campaigns are preparing for a December runoff if no candidate gets a majority of the vote in the Nov. 8 election.
Karen Blackburn, an Evans resident who had come to the Augusta rally to see Walker in person for the first time, said she might not like everything she hears about Walker but she believes he loves America and has the best intentions.
“You can say that any candidate running — any politician in the United States — there are certain things that I don’t like about them, even my husband,” Blackburn said. “But overall, I think he’s the best choice to improve our country and get things turned around in the right way.”
