Second woman says Herschel Walker pressured her to have abortion

Another woman has claimed that Herschel Walker pressured her into having an abortion and drove her to a clinic to obtain one.

On Wednesday, lawyer Gloria Allred – who has represented numerous alleged victims of sexual misconduct and assault – introduced to reporters a woman who alleges Walker, the anti-abortion Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, took her to an abortion clinic to have an abortion in the 1990s.

Related: Abortion rights take centre stage as Oz and Fetterman clash in Pennsylvania Senate debate

Allred said that her client, whom she introduced as Jane Doe, began dating the former football player in 1987 and had an intimate relationship with him for several years.

At the news conference, Allred presented evidence of hotel receipts, handwritten letters and a voice recording that Walker left Doe during their relationship.

In 1993, Doe found that she was pregnant, according to her attorney. When she told Walker, he “clearly wanted her to have an abortion, and convinced her to do so. Our client alleges that Mr Walker gave her cash to pay for the abortion,” said Allred.

In an emotional statement that Doe presented without revealing her face, she recalled how she felt “confused, uncertain and scared”.

“I simply couldn’t go through with it. I left the clinic in tears,” she said.

Doe then explained that Walker drove her again to the clinic and waited for her for hours until the abortion was complete.

“I was devastated because I felt that I had been pressured into having an abortion,” Doe said, adding that she felt “naive” and that Walker “took advantage of me”.

“The reason I am here today is because he has publicly taken the position that he is ‘about life’ and against abortion under any circumstances, when, in fact, he pressured me to have an abortion and personally ensured that it occurred by driving me to the clinic and paid for it,” she said.

“I do not believe that Herschel Walker is morally fit to be a US senator,” she said. “And that is the reason why I am speaking up and providing proof,” Doe said, adding that she was an independent and voted for Donald Trump twice.

The Guardian has not independently confirmed the account of Walker’s latest accuser.

In response to the new reports, Walker said: “I’m done with this foolishness. I’ve already told people this is a lie and I’m not going to entertain.”

Walker has voiced strict anti-abortion beliefs but has already been accused of paying for an abortion for another woman.

The Georgia Senate race is one of a group of contests that could be key to deciding control of the Senate in the midterm elections on 8 November.

The Democratic incumbent, Raphael Warnock, was elected in 2020, and along with Jon Ossoff gave Democrats the seats they needed to split the Senate 50-50, and control it via the vote of the vice-president, Kamala Harris.

Warnock is a pastor at a church where the civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King once preached. Walker is a former college and NFL football star with a chequered business career who is endorsed by Donald Trump.

Nationwide, Democrats hope the supreme court ruling on abortion will help motivate turnout as they seek to hold the House and Senate.

On Wednesday morning, before Allred’s intervention, the polling website FiveThirtyEight gave Warnock a three-point lead.

The other woman said Walker encouraged and paid for an abortion in 2009. Walker denied paying for the abortion, telling the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt: “Had that happened, I would have said it, because it’s nothing to be ashamed of there. You know, people have done that, but I know nothing about it. And if I knew about it, I would be honest and talk about it, but I know nothing about that.”

The same woman said he encouraged her to get a second abortion and had done “nothing” for their son.

Walker has said he is in favour of a total abortion ban, in line with Republican policy in the aftermath of the US supreme court ruling which revoked the right to abortion in June.

On the debate stage earlier this month, Walker tried to deny being in favor of an outright abortion ban and attacked Warnock for being a Baptist pastor but supporting abortion rights.