There was no shortage of head-scratching moments in Donald Trump’s debate performance last week, but some of the biggest humdingers involved abortion. The former president repeated false claims that some blue and purple states permit abortion after birth. Trump also absurdly argued that all Americans and legal scholars wanted Roe to be overturned.

It isn’t news that Trump indulges in more than the occasional alternative fact, but these lies didn’t have a superficial air of plausibility. Conservative groups like the Family Research Council cite state data suggesting that a handful of babies are born alive after abortion. It’s hard to know what to make of these data, which sometimes include any sign of life, such as umbilical cord pulsation, and don’t obviously differentiate miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion. Besides, killing any infant after birth qualifies as homicide—the United States punishes the killing of newborns especially harshly compared to peer nations—and the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act defines infants born alive after abortion as rights-holding persons under federal law.

Trump’s other statement was just as implausible. Polls show that most Americans opposed the reversal of Roe, with the 2022 Dobbs decision remaining unpopular. Further, a significant number of scholars submitted briefs to the Supreme Court asking the justices not to reverse Roe.

The abortion issue is an obvious liability for Trump. Why would he persist in saying things so patently false that they are almost sure not to move the needle?

We can chalk part of this strategy up to Trump’s proclivity for wish-casting, but there’s something more........

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