ICYMI: On The Debate Stage, Republicans Squirm When Pressed About Abortion [HuffPost]

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HuffPost: On The Debate Stage, Republicans Squirm When Pressed About Abortion
By Igor Bobic
October 22, 2024

• GOP candidates in critical Senate races have misrepresented their record on abortion, evading questions about exceptions and extreme state bans since the fall of Roe v. Wade.

• Republicans running for Senate ducked and dodged when pressed about abortion access in debates across the country this month, continuing to struggle with a key electoral liability.

• Last week, for example, conservative Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), in a debate with his Democratic challenger, Rep. Colin Allred, repeatedly avoided giving a direct answer to questions about his position on exceptions to abortion bans for cases of rape and incest.

• “Why do you keep asking me that?” Cruz asked the moderator at one point after he failed to answer the question.

• In Nevada, a majority pro-choice state where abortion is legal up to 24 weeks, Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown similarly glided over his past support for abortion restrictions without exceptions for rape or incest during a debate with Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen over the weekend.

• Rosen, meanwhile, warned that Brown and other Republicans are hiding their positions on the issue to get elected in November.

• “He has a decade-long record saying he’s against any exceptions on abortion even in case[s] of rape or incest,” the senator said of her opponent during the debate over the weekend. “If you don’t believe me, I’ve got some ocean-front property on Las Vegas Boulevard to sell you.”

• In Pennsylvania, another critical battleground state, Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick borrowed language Democrats typically use […] In 2022, however, McCormick touted his staunch commitment to opposing abortion before the Supreme Court’s ruling repealing Roe v. Wade. 

• But it’s not just newcomers seeking political office who are now presenting themselves to voters as moderates on abortion. Mike Rogers, a former Michigan congressman of 14 years who is now running for Senate, for example, tried to distance himself from his lengthy record of voting for abortion restrictions during his debate with Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the Democratic nominee in the race.

• Slotkin called him out for his past record.

• “He’s put his finger in the wind and says, ‘Now I can’t win if I don’t look good on this issue,’” Slotkin said last week. “So he’s changed 30 years of being unilaterally pro-life, of never breaking once with his party on this issue. It’s not a talking point to women. It is our lives, it is whether we bleed to death in a parking lot. It’s who and when gets to decide when we have a family.”

• She added: “Do not trust him.”

• Tommy Garcia, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said GOP Senate candidates “have shown voters how out-of-touch they are on one of the defining issues of this election: a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.”

• “Republican Senate candidates’ well-documented support for abortion bans and their callous disregard for women’s reproductive freedom is dominating the closing days of the Senate races and will lead voters to reject them,” he added.

See also: GOPonabortion.com; ICYMI: Republican Candidates Keep Straying Into Dangerous Territory: Abortion [New York Times]; ICYMI: Two years after the end of Roe, abortion is still tripping up Republicans in key races [NBC News]; HuffPost: GOP Senate Recruits Back The Same Extreme Abortion Positions That Cost The Party In 2022. 

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