--- title: Carly Fiorina Took Over Field Trip, Talked About Abortion description: Carly Fiorina reportedly directed school children to appear onstage with her at a pro-life event, without getting permission from parents. canonical: https://time.com/4189092/carly-fiorina-iowa-abortion/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-21T18:47:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:20:27.099Z article:section: Politics og:title: Carly Fiorina Took Over Field Trip, Talked About Abortion og:description: Carly Fiorina reportedly directed school children to appear onstage with her at a pro-life event, without getting permission from parents. og:url: https://time.com/4189092/carly-fiorina-iowa-abortion/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2bb7d8a3b28787d/69887a08428a9ef730cd10bf/carly-fiorina-iowa-right-to-life-preschool-children.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5112 og:image:height: 2876 og:image:alt: Carly Fiorina og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Carly Fiorina Took Over Field Trip, Talked About Abortion twitter:description: Carly Fiorina reportedly directed school children to appear onstage with her at a pro-life event, without getting permission from parents. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2bb7d8a3b28787d/69887a08428a9ef730cd10bf/carly-fiorina-iowa-right-to-life-preschool-children.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Carly Fiorina Accused of Hijacking Field Trip to Bring Kids to Pro-Life Rally > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 21, 2016 6:47 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is surrounded by preschool students as she speaks during the Iowa Right to Life Presidential Forum in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 20, 2016. Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is surrounded by preschool students as she speaks during the Iowa Right to Life Presidential Forum in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 20, 2016. Charlie Neibergall—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 21, 2016 6:47 PM UTC When a group of school children in Iowa went on a field trip to a botanical garden Wednesday, they ended up [learning about a lot more than just plants](http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/21/carly-fiorina-accused-of-ambushing-children-for-anti-abortion-rally?CMP=share%5Fbtn%5Ftw). Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina was at the Greater Des Moines botanical garden at the same time to host a pro-life event, [the _Guardian_ reports](http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/21/carly-fiorina-accused-of-ambushing-children-for-anti-abortion-rally?CMP=share%5Fbtn%5Ftw). Fiorina reportedly directed some of the children to sit in front of her on the stage as she talked graphically about abortion, without getting permission from some parents. “The kids went there to see the plants,” Chris Beck, the father of a four-year-old child who appeared with Fiorina, told the newspaper. “She ambushed my son’s field trip.” Fiorina’s campaign emailed out a response to the controversy, saying the children and their caretakers appeared with her by choice. “Carly has kids at her speeches on a regular basis,” the statement reads. “In Des Moines yesterday, a group of preschoolers along with their parents and teachers followed Carly right into the event she was speaking at for Iowa Right to Life. Earlier, she’d run into the kids in the Botanical Gardens and watched the Koi with them for a while. I guess the kids must have thought she was pretty neat because then their teachers and parents and the kids all followed Carly into the event complete with Carly stickers.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4189092/carly-fiorina-iowa-abortion/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4189092/carly-fiorina-iowa-abortion/"},"headline":"Carly Fiorina Accused of Hijacking Field Trip to Bring Kids to Pro-Life Rally","datePublished":"2016-01-21T18:47:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:20:27.099Z","description":"But Republican presidential candidate said preschoolers followed her into Iowa event","url":"https://time.com/4189092/carly-fiorina-iowa-abortion/","keywords":["Carly Fiorina"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2bb7d8a3b28787d/69887a08428a9ef730cd10bf/carly-fiorina-iowa-right-to-life-preschool-children.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2bb7d8a3b28787d/69887a08428a9ef730cd10bf/carly-fiorina-iowa-right-to-life-preschool-children.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Carly Fiorina","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is surrounded by preschool students as she speaks during the Iowa Right to Life Presidential Forum in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 20, 2016.","creditText":"Charlie Neibergall—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4189092/carly-fiorina-iowa-abortion/","name":"Carly Fiorina Accused of Hijacking Field Trip to Bring Kids to Pro-Life Rally"}}]}] ```