Politics

New woman says Herschel Walker got her pregnant and drove her to abortion clinic

Key Points
  • A second woman is claiming that she got pregnant by Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker and then had an abortion.
  • The woman alleged that she had a romantic relationship with Walker and that he drove her to an abortion clinic to have an abortion after she became pregnant during their relationship.
  • The woman is the second in recent weeks to say she had an abortion after becoming pregnant with Walker's child.
  • Walker has denied paying for an abortion.
Walker's latest accuser says he pressured her into having an abortion, he says she's lying
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Walker's latest accuser says he pressured her into having an abortion, he says she's lying

A second woman accused Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker of pressuring her to get an abortion after she became pregnant during their relationship.

The unnamed woman's allegation, revealed at a press conference Wednesday afternoon scheduled by attorney Gloria Allred, came weeks after a different anonymous woman said Walker had paid for an abortion in 2009 and pressured her to get a second one two years later.

Walker, who is running for Senate on an anti-abortion platform, has denied the earlier woman's allegations, which were reported by The Daily Beast and The New York Times.

Walker denied the latest allegation at a campaign event earlier Wednesday. "I'm done with this foolishness. I've already told people this is a lie and I'm not going to entertain, continue to carry a lie along," Walker said at an event in Georgia.

"I didn't kill JFK, either," he added. "The Democrats are doing whatever they can to win this seat."

The woman alleges that she had a romantic and intimate relationship with Walker in the 1980s and 1990s. She alleges that after she became pregnant in 1993, Walker drove her to a clinic in Dallas, Texas, to have an abortion — one day after she backed out of getting the procedure on her own.

Among other exhibits, Allred cited alleged love letters that Walker had sent the woman, and a 1992 voicemail that he had left for her, as evidence of their relationship. However, Allred did not show any documentation that corroborated the abortion allegation.

Walker continues to deny he paid for girlfriend's abortion
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Walker continues to deny he paid for girlfriend's abortion

Walker's accuser, without revealing her identity, read a statement calling him "a hypocrite" who "isn't fit to be a U.S. senator."

"Mr. Walker said he is against women having abortions. but he pressured me to have one," the woman said.

"We don't need people in the U.S. Senate who profess one thing and do another," she said.

The press conference in Los Angeles came than two weeks before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, when Walker hopes to unseat Georgia's incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. Polling averages show Walker and Warnock locked in a tight race in Georgia, a key swing state that could ultimately decide which party holds majority control of the Senate.

President Joe Biden narrowly won the Peach State over former President Donald Trump in 2020, and Democrats won both of the state's Senate races in the election, giving the party a razor-thin majority in the upper chamber of Congress.

Walker has expressed support for banning abortion without exceptions, and said he has "always been for life" in a recent interview.

"We know Herschel Walker has a problem with the truth, a problem answering questions, and a problem taking responsibility for his actions," Warnock campaign spokeswoman Rachel Petri 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."

The woman said she met Walker in the 1980s, during his pro football career.

Their romantic relationship began in 1987, while Walker was playing for the Dallas Cowboys and was married to his then-wife, Cindy DeAngelis Grossman. The woman believed Walker when he said he intended to leave his wife for her, Allred noted.

The attorney also read the contents of numerous cards and love notes that Walker had allegedly sent the woman. "You are very special and I do love you," one read. "I love you more than anything else in the world," Walker allegedly wrote in another message.

Some of those messages were signed with an "H," Allred said, noting that Walker had previously cast doubt on another accuser's allegations against him by claiming he never signed letters that way.

She also cited a receipt from a hotel in Minnesota where the woman had stayed with Walker in 1990 after he was traded to the Minnesota Vikings. And she played audio from a 1992 voicemail that Walker allegedly left for the woman while he was competing on the U.S. bobsleigh team in the Winter Olympics in France.

When the woman became unexpectedly pregnant in April 1993, Walker "clearly" wanted her to get an abortion and gave her cash to get the procedure done at a clinic in Dallas — but the woman became overwhelmed and did not go through with it, Allred said.

Walker was upset, his accuser said. The following day, he drove her to an abortion clinic and waited in the parking lot for hours until the procedure was complete.

The relationship began to deteriorate soon after. "I was devastated because I felt I had been pressured into having an abortion. After the abortion, I felt Herschel began distancing himself from me," the woman said.

The woman noted in her statement that she is a registered independent who had voted for former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.

"It's sad that I cannot show my face or reveal my name for fear of reprisals" the woman said.

The first woman to come forward saying she aborted a pregnancy with Walker, who has not been publicly identified, told news outlets that he paid for the termination after she got pregnant while they were dating in 2009.

When she became pregnant again two years later, the woman said Walker again urged her to end her pregnancy, but she refused. The relationship ended in September 2011, and the woman's son was born the following May, the Times reported, citing a paternity suit. The woman told the newspaper that Walker has barely been involved in the life of their now 10-year-old son.

On the campaign trail, Walker confirmed having more children than the one adult son, Christian Walker, whom he has previously publicly acknowledged.

After The Daily Beast first published the woman's allegation that Walker paid for her abortion, Christian Walker tore into his father on social media, accusing his father of being violent, neglectful and unfaithful to his family.

Walker, a former football star, has denied paying for the first woman's abortion or pushing her to terminate the pregnancy, calling it a lie. The woman had supplied The Daily Beast and other outlets with images of a receipt from an abortion clinic and a $700 check with his name on it.

When asked about those documents by NBC News, Walker confirmed that the check was his but said he did not know what the money was for.