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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

Yes.

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Wisconsin, opposes the government legislating a week limit on abortion.

At a roundtable on abortion access earlier this month, Barnes advocated “treating each individual situation as they are,” adding, “You can’t legislate a specific timeline.” In a different interview from October, asked if he supported abortion up until birth, Barnes said the matter should be decided “between a woman and her doctor.” While Barnes opposes government limitations on when an abortion can happen, his spokesperson recently clarified to PolitiFact that “Barnes does not support abortion up until birth.”

Barnes has said he would vote to codify abortion rights into law. Politifact noted that even before Roe v. Wade was overturned, “there was not unfettered access to abortion up until birth” and that the ruling only prohibited states from banning abortion before fetal “viability” — roughly 24 weeks.

Sources

WEAU News: Mandela Barnes hosts roundtable on abortion access in Eau Claire

Wisn 12 News: Mandela Barnes on campaign trail

PolitiFact: NRSC wrong that Mandela Barnes has come out “in favor of abortion up until the moment of birth.”

Jacob Alabab-Moser joined as Wisconsin Watch’s fact checker in September 2022, as part of the effort by The Gigafact Project in partnership with different state-level news outlets to combat misinformation in the 2022 midterm elections. Jacob has several years of experience as a fact checker and research assistant at a variety of organizations, including at The Gigafact Project. He holds a BA from Brown University and is pursuing a MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science.