Abortion anecdote from DeSantis at GOP debate is more complex than he made it sound

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, CHRISTINE FERNANDO and ALI SWENSON
Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — During last week’s Republican presidential debate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dodged a question about a federal abortion ban by telling a story about a woman he knew who he claimed survived despite “multiple abortion attempts.” The woman he referenced is real but her story from the 1950s is more complicated than DeSantis made it sound. The woman, Miriam “Penny” Hopper, said she was essentially discarded by a doctor after her parents tried to abort her at home. But newspaper accounts from the time say doctors at the hospital tried to save her, and medical experts have also questioned the story.