The woman who had an abortion at Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s urging is the mother of one of his children, The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday.
The woman, who remains anonymous, said the football legend-turned-Senate candidate requested she get an abortion in 2009 and also told her it was not a “convenient time” to have a child when she conceived again years later.
The woman, who decided to have the child the second time, said Walker “didn’t accept responsibility for the kid we did have together, and now he isn’t accepting responsibility for the one that we didn’t have.”
“That says so much about how he views the role of women in childbirth, versus his own. And now he wants to take that choice away from other women and couples entirely,” she told the outlet. “I don’t think there’s anywhere in the Bible where it says ‘have four kids with four different women while you’re with another woman.’ Or where it praises not being a present parent.”
“Or that an abortion is an OK thing to do when it’s not the right time for you, but a terrible thing for anyone else to do when you are running for Senate,” she added. “He picks and chooses where it’s convenient for him to use that religious crutch.”
Walker, who has categorically denied the reports that he paid for an abortion in 2009, told Fox News on Wednesday that he was unable to determine who the woman is.
“Everyone is anonymous, everyone is leaking, and they want you to confess or something,” Walker said. “It shows how desperate they are right now. They see me as a big threat.”
The first Daily Beast story earlier this week drove headlines as Walker — who is accused of domestic violence and not previously acknowledging multiple children he fathered — faced allegations of hypocrisy for urging and paying the woman to have an abortion and then running for Senate as a Republican who opposes abortion.
The Hill has been unable to verify reporting from The Daily Beast, which said it verified the woman’s relationship with Walker and corroborated her story with a friend who took care of her after the abortion.
Walker has seen some fallout from the story. His son Christian Walker posted a series of angry comments online, and the GOP candidate is now slightly trailing in the polls against Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).
But the Senate candidate, who released a new ad Wednesday that details his struggles with mental health, has seen many in the GOP, including former President Trump, rally around him in the wake of the story.
The news threw into turmoil a high-stakes race that plays a huge role in which party has control of the Senate after the midterm elections.
The woman told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that it was “good to see my story has been so well received.”
“Because I’m telling the truth. I’m not trying to glorify abortion—that’s a very personal choice that everyone has to make for themselves—but I have no shame in it,” she said. “It is what it is. It’s part of my story, and what makes me who I am today.”
“These are real life decisions that can completely change your life,” she continued. “Making it so black-and-white makes it easy for these old men to say it’s wrong or it’s right, but they’ve never been put in a position where it’s done to their body.”