GA Senate race: Mike Collins said Jon Ossoff backs abortion ‘up until and past birth.’ That’s False.

In a contentious debate between Georgia’s two U.S. Senate candidates, Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia said Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff holds an “extreme” position on abortion.

“He’s all for abortion up until and past birth,” Collins said in the Oct. 13 debate. “You talk about extreme. That’s Jon Ossoff in his position on abortion.”

Collins made the statement after Ossoff questioned whether Collins’ abortion position had changed from 2022, when Collins said during a debate and on a candidate survey that he supported a total ban with “no exceptions.”

Now, Collins says he supports three exceptions.

“I’ve been pro-life all my life, forever,” Collins told Ossoff during the Atlanta Press Club-sponsored debate live-streamed by Georgia Public Broadcasting. “I also believe that the Georgia Legislature got it right, that the governor and Legislature allow for three exceptions with the heinous rapes or incest or in the life of the mother. But my opponent Jon Ossoff is completely the opposite.”

Ossoff is seeking a second six-year term in a purple state where Democrats hope to retain the Senate seat. As of late September, the Cook Political Report said the race is likely to go to Democrats.

When we asked Ossoff’s campaign about Collins’ charge that he supports abortion “past birth,” a spokesperson referred us to Ossoff’s debate response.

“I support the standard of privacy that was established in Roe v. Wade,” Ossoff said.

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that the Constitution protects a woman’s legal access to abortion until the fetus has the ability to live outside the womb, usually between between 24 and 28 weeks after conception. Roe also allowed states to restrict abortions, including banning them after fetal viability, unless the life or health of the mother was at risk. 

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe on June 24, 2022, when it ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to end federally protected access to abortion and leave individual states to set their own laws. 

Asked for evidence of Collins’ claim, campaign spokesperson Meyer Siegfried pointed PolitiFact to Ossoff’s votes on three pieces of federal legislation: his support for S. 4132 in 2022 and his cosponsorship of S. 701 in 2023, both of which were called the Women’s Health Protection Act; and his 2025 vote against S. 6, named the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

Siegfried said the bills would allow an abortion up to the moment of birth if a provider cites the patient’s health, which he said the bills didn’t define. 

Ossoff’s record on abortion

Ossoff voted along party lines to advance S. 4132, but the measure failed, 49-51. The bill said the government cannot prohibit abortions before fetal viability or after fetal viability when a provider determines the patient’s life or health is in danger. 

A year later, Ossoff, who is married to an OB-GYN, co-sponsored S. 701 to essentially do the same thing. The bill never advanced to a vote.

Both pieces of legislation explicitly prohibited abortion restrictions before fetal viability. The bills permitted pregnancy termination up until delivery, but only when healthcare professionals determined doing so would preserve the mother’s life or health.

The 2025 Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act that Ossoff voted against said that in cases in which a failed abortion resulted in birth, health care practitioners must provide the same level of care they would provide a baby born in a typical childbirth scenario. Democrats who opposed the measure said denying care to infants is already illegal.

Ossoff’s campaign website says that he aims to “defend women’s freedom of choice in reproductive health care.” It links to a 2025 article about a survey of 38 Georgia OB-GYNs in which nearly half reported ambiguity in the state’s abortion law led them to encounter cases in which they had to delay care leading to health complications, including the mother’s death. The survey was produced through a partnership between the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Ossoff, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported.

Ossoff also released a statement on Oct. 24, 2023, calling on Georgia’s state Legislature and the governor to repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban. That day, the state’s Supreme Court rejected an argument that the law was unconstitutional.

What federal law says about past birth abortions

Willfully killing a newborn is considered infanticide and is illegal in all 50 states. Health experts have said fatal deaths in the third trimester are exceedingly rare and usually involve emergencies such as fatal anomalies or life-threatening complications for the mother. For fetuses with very short life expectancies, the birth can be induced by a doctor and offer palliative care for the comfort of the newborn.

We previously rated False claims from President Donald Trump and other Republicans saying Democrats are calling for the killing of infants after birth.

The vast majority of abortions in the U.S., over 90%, occur in the first trimester, or before 13 weeks. About 1% take place after 21 weeks, and far less than 1% occur in the third trimester, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2022 report.

Our ruling

Collins said Ossoff is “all for abortion up until and past birth.”

Ossoff says he supports  Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established federally protected abortion access until the fetus had the ability to live outside the womb. That usually happens between 24 and 28 weeks after conception. Roe allowed abortions after viability when the life or health of the mother was at risk.

Killing an infant after birth is illegal in all 50 states.

The vast majority of abortions occur in the first trimester and fatal deaths of babies in the third trimester are rare. If a fetus is born following a failed abortion, doctors are already required to provide necessary care.

Supporting Roe’s ruling that said access to abortion is a federally protected right is not the same as supporting abortion up to the moment of birth.

We rate this claim False.