Greg Abbott, Asked About Abortion Rape Exceptions, States His Priorities

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott repeatedly avoided saying whether he would support rape and incest exceptions to the state's strict abortion ban in an interview on Sunday, saying his priorities include ensuring that doctors do "everything that they can to protect the life of the mother."

Texas enacted one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country after the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in late June. The law criminalizes performing an abortion from the moment of fertilization, unless the patient is facing "a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy."

In an interview with ABC13's political reporter Tom Abrahams, Abbott was asked several times if he would support legislation that allowed abortion in cases of rape and incest.

Abrahams pointed to a poll of 1,020 adults between September 24 and 27 that found 77 percent of Texans support allowing abortion in cases of rape and incest.

"Why is the law as restrictive as it is? Why not include rape and incest?" Abrahams asked Abbott, a Republican running for re-election in November.

"Because it's the law that was passed by the legislature," the governor said.

Abbott went on to say that Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat running against him for governor, stands for "unlimited abortion at taxpayer expense" and that he is in favor of abortion of "a fully developed baby to one second right before that fully developed baby is born."

"That's the extreme position on abortion in Texas," he said.

"That's not true. It's completely a lie," O'Rourke said when Abbott made similar comments during a debate earlier in October.

A spokesperson for O'Rourke's campaign told Newsweek on Monday that "like the vast majority of Texans, Beto has long supported the standard set by Roe v. Wade, which for half a century prohibited states from outlawing abortion in cases where the pregnancy threatened the life of the pregnant woman. That standard allowed for women and their doctors to make this personal and often painful decision later in the pregnancy if the abortion was necessary to save the woman's life."

Abrahams said that, while most Texans do not support abortion at all stages of a pregnancy, many do want exceptions in cases of rape and incest. "Is that something that the legislature might revisit?" he asked the governor.

"Let me tell you what I'm focused on in the coming session," Abbott said.

"And that is, we must make clear not only that the life of the mother is as important as the life of the baby. But we need to clarify what that really means because the medical profession and politicians have mischaracterized that."

Abbott said: "Some women have miscarriages, some have ectopic pregnancies, some have other health issues related to their pregnancy that could impair their life and endanger their life.

"Some doctors have said that they're not going to treat those situations. We must both clarify and make sure that the medical profession is doing everything that they can to protect the life of the mother."

Abrahams again asked Abbott if he would support rape and incest exceptions.

"There's going to be things ranging from just across the board with regard to different proposals, addressing abortion, and we'll see what comes up," Abbott said.

"All I can tell you is the last thing that we will do is to what Beto stands for, and that is to allow basically the killing of a fully developed child just a second before that child is born and not doing anything to help the child who survives an abortion."

Abrahams then asked one last time if Abbott would sign legislation that allowed abortion in cases of rape and incest.

The governor again avoided answering the question directly.

"There's gonna be a lot of pieces of legislation that come forward that will be across the board," he said.

"As I indicated earlier, there's going to be some laws that will be proposed, that will make sure that we're doing more to protect the life of the mother. And those are the kinds of laws that I'm going to be looking to advance, and we'll see where the others land."

It comes after Abbott was slammed after he defended Texas' strict abortion ban by saying victims of rape can take Plan B—emergency contraception also known as the "morning-after pill"—to prevent pregnancy.

Newsweek has contacted Abbott's campaign for further comment.

Update 10/10/22, 10:10 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add a statement from a spokesperson for Beto O'Rourke's campaign.