On Wednesday afternoon, a woman going by the pseudonym Jane Doe publicly accused U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker of pressuring her to have an abortion after she became pregnant through a years long sexual relationship with him.
This is the second woman who has alleged that the Georgia Republican—who supports a total abortion ban with no exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the patient—encouraged her to terminate a pregnancy and paid for the procedure.
In a press conference streamed over Zoom, Doe and her lawyer, Gloria Allred, described a lengthy affair that Doe and Walker allegedly shared in the 1980s and ‘90s, while Walker was married. (Doe spoke on the Zoom but did not appear on video or show her face.) Doe said they met while he played for the Dallas Cowboys and she lived in Dallas, and she later traveled the country to be with him at football games after he was traded to other teams. He allegedly promised to leave his wife to be with her, and also met her parents, to whom he wrote a letter apologizing for the “mess” of, presumably, dating their daughter while married to another woman.
In April 1993, Doe said, she became unexpectedly pregnant, and over the course of several discussions, Walker encouraged her to have an abortion. He gave her cash, which she took to a Dallas clinic. But once there, she became emotional, started crying, and decided not to go through with the abortion.
When Doe told Walker that night that she had backed out, he allegedly became upset and, the next day, insisted on driving her back to the clinic, where he waited in the parking lot until the procedure was complete. He then took her to the pharmacy for her prescribed medications and drove her home.
Doe was “devastated,” she said, “because I felt that I had been pressured into having an abortion.” She left Dallas mere days after the procedure and did not return for 15 years “because I was so traumatized by what Herschel had put me through.”
Earlier this month, the Daily Beast broke the story of another woman who claimed Walker had paid for her abortion after she became pregnant through a sexual relationship with him. (She is the mother of one of Walker’s three secret children whom he did not publicly acknowledge until the Beast began revealing their existence during the campaign.) The woman provided evidence that Walker gave her a $700 check for her expenses and sent her a get-well card with the inscription “Pray you are feeling better,” signed “H.”
Two years later, Walker allegedly encouraged that same woman to have another abortion. They broke up when she decided to carry the pregnancy to term; she eventually took Walker to court to get him to pay child support.
Walker has confirmed that the $700 check came from him, but denies that the money was for an abortion. He sends money “to a lot of people,” he said, and intimated that it was for child-related expenses—though the check was dated years before their child was born.
Walker has also been accused of repeated acts of domestic violence by his ex-wife, who said he assaulted her and threatened her life with knives, a razor at her throat, and a gun held to her head. One of his sons has backed up those claims, and Walker has not denied them. He has denied allegations from two other former partners who said he threatened them.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Allred presented several bits of physical evidence to support Doe’s story. She showed a photo of Walker on the bed of a hotel room Doe claims they shared in Minnesota during Walker’s training camp for the Minnesota Vikings, a copy of a receipt from that hotel showing the dates of her stay, a letter from Walker to Doe, and three handwritten cards signed “H,” much like the card turned up by the Daily Beast. One was inscribed, “I know that you know I love you, I just hope you know how much.” (Walker has claimed he never signed cards with “H.”)
Allred also played a voicemail recording that allegedly featured Walker calling Doe from France in 1992, while he was competing on the U.S. bobsled team in the Winter Olympics, to tell her “I love you.”
Doe predicted that people would dismiss her story, and her decision to come forward, as a politically motivated fabrication. “I am a registered independent,” she said. “And I voted for Donald Trump in both elections. I do not believe that Herschel is morally fit to be a U.S. senator, and that is the reason why I am speaking up and providing proof.”
Doe said that Walker “has publicly taken the position that he is quote, ‘about life,’ end quote, and against abortion under any circumstances, when in fact he pressured me to have an abortion and personally ensured that it occurred.”
Walker later appeared before the press to issue a blanket denial of Doe’s story. “I’m done with this foolishness,” he said. “I’ve already told people this is a lie, and I’m not going to continue to entertain—to carry a lie along. And I also wanted to let you know, I didn’t kill JFK either.” Walker is currently neck and neck with incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock in the polls.
