An unnamed woman on Wednesday came forward with new allegations against Republican senate candidate Herschel Walker, saying he drove her to an abortion clinic and paid for the procedure after she became pregnant as the result of a consensual relationship in 1993.
Walker, a former football star at the University of Georgia, has voiced vehement opposition to nearly all abortions throughout much of his campaign against incumbent Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock.
“Herschel Walker is a hypocrite and he's 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,” said the woman, who asked for her identity to remain concealed due to security concerns, during a Wednesday press conference. “Herschel Walker says he is against women having abortions, but he pressured me to have one.”
While Walker’s stance has recently softened somewhat on abortion – the GOP candidate said in a debate last week that he would support Georgia’s law allowing exceptions for abortions in the case of rape, incest or if the life of the mother is at risk – the 60-year-old previously voiced support for a nationwide abortion ban proposed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and had characterized abortions as “a woman killing her baby.”
Walker’s latest accuser, identified only as Jane Doe, recounted on Wednesday a romantic relationship that began in 1987 while Walker was playing for the Dallas Cowboys, where Doe lived at the time. Doe alleged that for the next several years, she traveled to spend time with Walker at many of his football games; she also claimed that the two exchanged letters and that Walker met her parents, all while promising to leave his then-wife for Doe.
Around six years and two trades later – when Walker was playing for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1993 – Doe claimed she discovered she was pregnant.
“After discussing the pregnancy with Herschel several times, he encouraged me to have an abortion and gave me the money to do so,” Doe recounted on Wednesday. “I went to a clinic in Dallas but I simply couldn't go through with it. I left the clinic in tears. 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. He then drove me to get medications and supplies as prescribed, and then drove me home,” Doe said, adding: “I was devastated because I felt that I had been pressured into having an abortion.”
Doe is represented by famed civil rights attorney Gloria Allred, who brought with her to Wednesday’s press conference a series of exhibits she said substantiated her client’s claims. Among them were alleged handwritten letters from Walker to Doe, signed with “H,” as well as a photo of Walker on one of Doe’s hotel bedrooms. Allred would not say how much money Walker allegedly gave to her client for the abortion.
Spectrum News reached out to Walker’s campaign for comment and has not heard back – but Walker publicly denied the allegations during a campaign event on Wednesday.
"I've already told people this, this is a lie and I'm not going to entertain it," Walker said from a stop in Dillard, Georgia alongside Sen. Graham, who came to stump for the GOP candidate. Graham also pushed back against the allegations, claiming Allred is a “celebrity lawyer” who was making a “wild accusation” in the leadup to the midterm elections.
Allred responded to both claims during Wednesday’s press conference, addressing Walker directly: “We're not going to be distracted. You need to answer these allegations specifically. You need to tell your truth, because the voters deserve the truth from you.”
Wednesday marked the second time in under a month that a woman claimed Walker pushed them to get and paid for an abortion. In early October, The Daily Beast published a story about another woman, who similarly asked that her identity be kept private, claiming Walker paid for an abortion in 2009.
The news outlet received and reportedly verified a receipt showing a $575 payment for the abortion, along with a get-well card from Walker – with the message “pray you are feeling better” and signed with a capital “H” – and bank deposit records showing an image of a $700 personal check from Walker dated five days later.
While Walker has acknowledged the $700 check was indeed his, the Republican denied paying for the abortion, telling NBC News of the check: “I have no idea what that could be for.”
Walker also went on Fox News to further deny the allegations, saying in part: “You know how many things I've signed but I've never signed anything just as ‘H.’”
It was that message, Doe said Wednesday, that encouraged her to share her own experience with Walker.
“I am coming forward now because I saw Herschel deny the allegations by another woman. Who claims that he had paid for abortion. And particularly, I saw him state that the woman's claims were not true because he never signed any cards using the letter ‘H,’” she said. “I knew that was not true. Because he had often signed letters to me using ‘H.’”
Wednesday’s accusations are just the latest in what has become a race focused largely on Walker’s personal life, as he admitted to fathering children he had not previously disclosed; the first woman to accuse Walker of paying for an abortion also claimed the football star pressured her to get another abortion for a subsequent pregnancy, which she refused.
Warnock's campaign seized on the latest allegations against the Republican nominee for Senate on Wednesday.
“We know Herschel Walker has a problem with the truth, a problem answering questions, and a problem taking responsibility for his actions,” a spokesperson for Warnock's campaign said in a statement. “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.”
Still, it remains to be seen if – or how much – the most recent accusations will impact Georgia’s race. According to a polling average FiveThirtyEight, Warnock still holds a narrow three-point lead, though some polls have shown the gap between the two candidates has closed slightly in recent weeks.