May 03, 2022 01:58 PM UTC

Colorado Republicans on Abortion Rights

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• by: Colorado Pols

If you’re reading these words we will assume that you are already aware that a leaked document indicates that the U.S. Supreme Court is getting ready to overturn Roe v. Wade in what would be a stunning rollback of abortion rights. This news will obviously have an enormous impact on the 2022 election; how each individual candidate approaches the subject will be perhaps more critical than it has ever been for American voters.

With that in mind, we thought it would be instructive to take a look at the positions on abortion taken by the various candidates for major political offices in Colorado. Since we can’t list the positions of every candidate — well, we could, but that would take longer than waiting for Hiedi Heidi Ganahl to answer a question — we’re going to focus on the candidates in competitive races for federal office in Colorado (U.S. Senate and Congress).

But before we do that, here’s a fantastic example from Ganahl herself of how NOT to respond to these questions:

NEW: Campaign spokeswoman for GOP gubernatorial candidate @heidiganahl declines to say if Ganahl would sign an abortion ban in Colorado but said the recent law establishing abortion rights in Colorado state law “must be undone.” #copolitics

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) May 3, 2022

Colorado state lawmakers recently passed legislation called the “Reproductive Health Equity Act” (RHEA), also known as HB22-1279, that essentially protects the rights of Colorado women to choose an abortion without government interference — like if, say, the Supreme Court of the United States decided to overturn Roe v. Wade. Ganahl vehemently opposes this law, but she won’t say if she would sign legislation banning an abortion in Colorado (which pretty much means she would). In short, Ganahl made it clear (again) that she opposes abortion rights but is too politically-terrified to talk about it in public.

Okay, back to the candidates for Congress…

As far as we know, there is no Democrat running in Colorado in 2022 who does NOT support abortion rights, so we’ll skip ahead to note where the relevant Republican candidates are standing on the issue.

U.S. SENATE

Voters don’t have much of an option on the issue of abortion when it comes to Republican candidates Ron Hanks and Joe O’Dea. The only real difference is that Hanks doesn’t even try to dance around on the subject:

You’re not going to get much further to the right than Hanks when it comes to abortion. If there were an “Outlaw Abortion” button, Hanks would have already smashed it to pieces with his enthusiasm. Hanks would support outlawing abortion anywhere, at any time.

O’Dea is less transparent about his opinion on abortion. He says that abortion is an issue that should be left up to the states to decide, which is his way of trying not to answer questions about Roe v. Wade. At the same time, O’Dea opposes the Reproductive Health Equity Act recently passed in Colorado…which protects the right to an abortion AT THE STATE LEVEL.

O’Dea isn’t likely going to clear this up anytime soon, because he doesn’t want to be talking about abortion at all should he win the June Primary Election for the right to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

We aren’t suggesting that Joe O’Dea opposes abortion rights in all cases. But O’Dea isn’t saying anything to the contrary.

If you’re a Republican Primary voter, O’Dea is potentially with you on this issue. In the meantime, he’s following the advice of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has instructed GOP candidates to yell SQUIRREL! whenever they get a question on abortion or Roe v. Wade.

CO-07

There are three Republicans running for Congress in CO-07. It’s safe to say that none of them support abortion rights.

Erik Aadland is a big fan of the ridiculous abortion restrictions recently enacted in Texas, so there’s no need to ask him about Roe v. Wade.

Laurel Imer thinks that women should be punished by the law in states that have outlawed abortion.

And Tim Reichert? Well…Tim Reichert thinks an abortion is a sacrifice to a demon named “Baal.” When you’ve reached the point in the abortion debate when you are talking about specific demons by name, you’ve pretty well made your opinion clear.

CO-08

And finally, we come to the brand spanking new eighth congressional district. Here we have three four Republican candidates with fairly similar positions on abortion rights.

Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine is a staunch supporter of even the “Personhood” idea that a zygote needs a Social Security number. She makes no effort to pretend otherwise.

Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann has made it clear that she opposes abortion rights and would work to dismantle them if elected to Congress.

State Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer is equally blunt on the subject. Kirkmeyer believes that “life begins at conception” and sponsored an abortion ban in Colorado during the current legislative session.

Oh, and Tyler Allcorn…well, we’re sure he has an opinion.

Anyway, if abortion rights are a key voting issue for you this November, then your answers are pretty clear in all three major federal races in Colorado.