IN THE SENATE BATTLEGROUNDS: GOP Senate Candidates Slammed For Backing National Abortion Ban Without Exceptions, “Our Rights and Freedoms Are on The Ballot”

Around the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, voters across Senate battlegrounds are reading and watching wall-to-wall coverage calling out GOP Senate candidates’ support for a nationwide abortion ban without exceptions and highlighting to voters that “our rights and freedoms are on the ballot this November.” 

See for yourself: 

CBS News: DSCC Chairman Sen. Gary Peters on Abortion in 2024 Senate Races and GOPonAbortion.com

• Ed O’Keefe, CBS News: Democrats are leaning into the issue of abortion rights up and down the ballot this year. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — or the organization responsible for getting Democrats elected to the Senate — has even launched a website criticizing Republicans for their stance on the issue.
  
  
• Sen. Peters: There’s no question that it continues to be a powerful issue. We continue to see it play out in recent referendums in Ohio…we’re now looking at other referendums that will likely be on the ballot in key battleground states across the country. We know when people have an opportunity to make their voice heard at the ballot box, they take advantage of it. …clearly Republican candidates are on the wrong side of this issue and it’s gonna hurt them come election time.

AZ – The Copper Courier: With freedoms on the line, Arizonans can’t afford another Trump abortion ban (Op-Ed by Chairwoman of the Arizona Democratic Party Yolanda Bejarano)

• This shouldn’t be the Arizona we’re living in, where our freedom to make our own healthcare choices is relentlessly attacked and ripped away from us, but it is — thanks to Donald Trump and Arizona Republicans like Kari Lake, who praised the overturning of Roe.

FL – MSNBC: Dems eye FL Senate seat: Mucarsel-Powell looks to unseat ‘extreme’ Rick Scott

• Lawrence O’Donnell: 62% say that they favor this amendment [to enshrine abortion rights in the Florida constitution]. If it appears on the ballot…in Florida, that would be 62% opposing Republican Sen. Rick Scott’s position on this.
  
  
• Debbie Mucarsel-Powell: Yes Lawrence, and we have in Rick Scott, one of the most extreme politicians in Washington, D.C. He has been very vocal in supporting a national abortion ban, even to go as far as to include criminalizing health care providers that give this medical care for women.
  
  
• Debbie Mucarsel-Powell: We cannot allow Congress to shift and to have Republicans like Rick Scott push a national abortion ban. He has been a nightmare for Florida and Florida families. 

MI – Click On Detroit: Michigan Democrats plan to make abortion part of their 2024 election playbook

• Beyond the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, Michigan Democrats plan to make abortion part of their 2024 election playbook. “People are fired up about protecting our freedoms across the country,” said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer at an event in Detroit. She also expressed concern about a national abortion ban.

MI – The Gander: Michiganders protected abortion after Roe. Republicans are plotting a reversal.

• If ex-President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers manage to take control of the federal government in the 2024 elections, those hard-fought rights could again be in jeopardy.

MT – NonStop Local: Montana Democrats host call with pro-choice officials

• A group of Montana Democrats…spoke about comments that candidate Tim Sheehy and Congressman Matt Rosendale both publicly made against abortion.
  
  
• Senator Jon Tester has posted on Twitter that he does not share these beliefs. In a statement he said “In Montana we stand up for freedom and oppose ongoing efforts by politicians to make these decisions for women. These are values I will not stop defending.” 

NV – KLAS Las Vegas: Nevada Democrats sounding alarms on abortion issues

• Democrats are making abortion a key issue in the upcoming election, with statements released by elected officials on Monday — 51 years since the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

• [In 2022,] the abortion issue motivated Democrats to vote in disproportionate numbers. Now, Nevada Democrats are once again making a concerted effort to rally voters around the abortion issue.
  
  
• Democratic U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen put out a statement vowing to continue her fight against “anti-choice attacks and extreme abortion bans.”
  
  
• The Nevada Democratic Party chimed in with criticism of [Sam] Brown’s record on abortion, saying he tried to hide his record from Nevada voters.

NV – Las Vegas Sun: We must keep fighting for reproductive freedom in a post-Roe world (Op-Ed by Sen. Jacky Rosen) 

• Now that Roe has been overturned, all it would take to undo Nevada’s reproductive freedom laws would be an anti-choice Congress passing a nationwide abortion ban.
  
  
• A group of Senate Republicans introduced federal legislation to ban abortion just last year — a plan to strip women in every state, including Nevada, of their right to control their own bodies. That’s why I will continue fighting every day to restore and protect women’s reproductive rights.

OH – Columbus Dispatch: My Patients Suffered Under Near Abortion Ban. If Ohio GOP Has Way, They Will Again. (Op-Ed by Columbus OBGYN Dr. Kale Turner)

• This past November, Ohioans said loud and clear that politicians have no place making women’s personal decisions in doctor’s offices —like mine— by passing State Issue 1. Although… our fight to protect reproductive rights isn’t over.
  
  
• That’s because every Republican running in the primary for Ohio’s Senate seat would support a national abortion ban — and that ban would supersede the protections now in Ohio’s constitution thanks to State Issue 1.
  
  
• Ohioans spoke loudly and clearly against dangerous bans last year. But this year, they’ll have to do so again by rejecting whoever is nominated to run against Sherrod Brown. Otherwise, Ohioans risk their voices being overruled by politicians who want to make personal decisions for them by passing a national ban.
  
  
• Make no mistake: A national abortion ban is the end goal for politicians like Bernie Moreno, Frank LaRose, and Matt Dolan.

OH – NBC News: Ohio’s first GOP Senate debate centers on who’s aligned with Trump — and who’s a ‘phony’

• Three Republicans vying for Ohio’s competitive U.S. Senate seat argued at a televised debate here Monday.

• The debate moderators also pushed the candidates on abortion rights, which were codified into the Ohio Constitution last year following a ballot initiative that all three candidates opposed. LaRose had been the face of the opposition after having previously championed a separate, failed measure that would have raised the threshold to pass such amendments. 

• Dolan, LaRose and Moreno […] each made it clear they were in favor of […] federal restrictions.

PA – The Philadelphia Tribune: Local Democrats warn of potential Republican plans to ban abortion nationwide

• State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta joined Reps. Madeline Dean and Mary Gay Scanlon to raise awareness of potential Republican plans to ban abortion nationwide.
  
  
• [Rep. Dean] also warned against Republicans being “repackaged” to avoid being aligned with anti-abortion efforts, calling out Dave McCormick.

TX – KEYE Austin: Lawmakers speak about abortion access ahead of 51st anniversary of Roe V. Wade

• Next week will be the 51st anniversary of the now-overturned Roe versus Wade. Today, lawmakers including Congressman Colin Allred (D-TX) spoke about the impacts observed in Texas.

• “Women in Texas have fewer rights than their mothers or even their grandmothers. And we’re on this call today because what’s happening in Texas right now is a tragedy,” said [Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Colin] Allred.

• Concerns about interstate travel and future limiting legislation were also brought up after a Texas woman, Kate Cox, traveled to New Mexico for an abortion. She had no choice but to leave the state after the Texas Supreme Court ruled she did not qualify for the procedure here, despite medical complications identified by doctors.

WI – MSNBC: Sen. Baldwin on abortion rights: ‘Can’t stop fighting’ until Roe is ‘law of the land’

• Sen. Baldwin: In Wisconsin, we fell back to a law that was passed in 1849, a criminal abortion ban. And those same dire stories have happened across the state of Wisconsin for the 15 months since Dobbs was decided and Roe fell. And now, in the state of Wisconsin we have 69 out of our 72 counties where there is no access available.
  
  
• Sen. Baldwin: Without any question, our rights and freedoms are on the ballot this November. …it’s happening in Senate and House races across the country. There’s probably no better example than in my home state of Wisconsin, where Washington D.C. Republicans have recruited a California bank owner mega-millionaire [Eric Hovde] to run against me. If [Hovde] wins, he could be very well, the deciding vote for a national abortion ban. He has said he is totally opposed to abortion rights. 

See also: ICYMI: DSCC Vice Chair Sen. Tina Smith Discusses How Abortion is a “Defining Issue in The 2024 Elections,” Highlights DSCC Launch of GOPonAbortion.com; ICYMI: Senate Democrats launch website targeting GOP on abortion ahead of Roe v Wade anniversary [The Hill].

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