North Carolina’s GOP candidates for US Senate strongly oppose women's rights

8/13/2019 North Carolinas GOP candidates for US Senate strongly oppose women's rights

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Abortion question divides North Carolinas U.S.Senate candidatesBy Renee Schoof and John Frank

[email protected]@newsobserver.comJanuary 31, 2014

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Where they stand

Candidate AbortionBan abortion after 20

weeks

Personhood

amendment

Ban

contraceptives

Contraceptivehealth

coverage

TedAlexander

Wants to seeRoe v. Wadereversed;didntelaborate.

Supports Supports

Says statesshould have theright to do ban,but does notthink N.C.should.

Says companyhealth plansshouldnt haveto covercontraceptives.

GregBrannon

Should beillegal except tosave the life ofthe mother.

Supports Supports


Says companyhealth plans

shouldnt haveto covercontraceptives.

HeatherGrant


Supports Supports


Says onlyreligiousinstitutionsshouldnt haveto covercontraceptivesin employeehealth plans.

MarkHarris


Supports Supports

Says statesshould have theright but cantimagine anywould.


ThomTillis

Should beillegal except tosave the life ofthe mother,and in cases ofrape andincest.

Supports Supports

Says the stateshould have theright, but wontsay whether NCshould do it.

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KayHagan

Supportsabortion rights,saying thatwomen shouldmake suchdecisions forthemselves.

Opposed a bill thatwould ban abortionsafter 20 weeks ofpregnancy except whenthe mothers life isendangered or in casesof rape or incest

Opposes

Says statesshould not beallowed to bancontraceptives,

just as they arenot allowed toban otherapprovedmedications.

Does not thinkemployersshould be ableto excludecontraceptivecoverage;religiousorganizationsare exempt.

North Carolinas fiercely competitive U.S. Senate race could turn on one of the most divisive issues inpolitics.

The abortion question shows up the stark contrast between incumbent Democrat Kay Hagan and her GOPchallengers.

Hagan supports abortion rights for women. The leading GOP contenders want to make abortion illegal.Three of the Republican candidates go even further, arguing to outlaw abortion even in cases of rape andincest. The only exception, they say, is to protect the mothers life.

The Republican candidates also say the state has the authority to ban contraceptives and favor apersonhood constitutional amendment that would grant legal protections to a fertilized human egg andpossibly ban some forms of birth control.

Democrats see such stances as an opportunity to continue to hammer Republicans with the war onwomen strategy that proved successful for them in the 2012 elections.

Women, not politicians, should be the ones to make these difficult and complex decisions in consultationwith their doctor, their family and their faith, Hagan said in response to questions.

The race, one of several pivotal Senate battles that could decide whether Democrats keep control of the

chamber, is expected to draw attention from outside groups on both sides of the abortion issue.

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Central North Carolina, the groups political arm, intends to helpHagan by targeting women who favor access to abortion. Its the same strategy that Planned Parenthood inVirginia used last fall in the governors race to help Democrat Terry McAuliffe defeat Republican KenCuccinelli.

Theres a really large number of women in North Carolina who care deeply about womens health and wantto make sure women have access to basic health care, said Paige Johnson, the action funds vicepresident of external and governmental affairs.

She said that people were angry about the abortion restrictions and galvanized in a way theyve never

been in the state and are paying attention in a way weve never had.

Republicans counter that voters are more concerned about the economy than they are about abortion. Thehealth care law, in particular, trumps everything, said GOP strategist Marc Rotterman in Raleigh.

Still, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution at its winter meeting earlier this month thaturged its candidates to speak out against abortion.

Motivating voters

Comments offensive to many women have led to prominent stumbles by GOP candidates in recentcampaigns.


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This election cycle, Republican House and Senate candidates have been getting tutored on how to avoidverbal gaffes that could damage their credibility and campaigns.

Republicans arent going to sit back and let Democrats trump up this war on women and let it gounresponded to, said Katie Packer Gage, a Washington-area Republican consultant who works withcandidates on how they present themselves to women voters.

Jennifer Duffy, a Senate analyst at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said Democrats will likely use theissue of abortion restrictions to motivate voters, especially women.

But North Carolina is one of those states where it probably will pack a little more punch because of whathappened at the state level, she said.

In July, the legislature passed a law that gives the state the authority to regulate abortion clinics asstringently as same-day surgery centers but doesnt require it. The law also allows health care providers toopt out of performing abortions if doing so is against their beliefs, and stops government insurance plansfrom paying for them.

N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis of Cornelius, who is an early front-runner in the GOP Senate race, alsosupported state efforts that blocked Planned Parenthood from receiving funding from the state for itsscreenings and other health services.

And last week, he called for an appeal of a recent federal ruling that struck down a provision requiringdoctors to narrate an ultrasound by describing the fetus in detail to a woman seeking an abortion. Thatstate law was passed in 2011.

I am pro-life, I believe all life is sacred, and I am proud that we have made real progress on this issue sinceI am speaker, Tillis wrote in an email. The country is moving in our direction on this issue.

Greg Brannon, a tea party activist endorsed by libertarian Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a potential 2016presidential hopeful, and the Rev. Mark Harris, a Charlotte Baptist pastor endorsed by former ArkansasGov. Mike Huckabee, are expected to mount the most serious challenges to Tillis in the Republican primary

Brannon, Harris and Heather Grant, a nurse from Wilkesboro, oppose abortion in all cases, including rape

and incest. Tillis believes abortion should be permitted in the case where the mothers health is at risk andin cases of rape and incest.

At an event in November, Brannon put abortion in a moral context and compared it to the end of slavery. Ibelieve in my heart of hearts what our country went through because people had different color pigmentversus the babies in the womb is the same exact battle, he said.

At a GOP forum last month, candidates also said they thought states had the right to ban contraceptives.Tillis, who skipped the event, later said he agreed.

In subsequent interviews, the candidates said even if North Carolina lawmakers had the ability, theyshouldnt ban all forms of contraception.

Wed be eager for them to run against birth control, because it would be completely out of line with ourstate, said Planned Parenthoods Johnson.

Hagans record

Hagans voting record makes her views on abortion clear.

She voted against an unsuccessful amendment in 2012 by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., that would have allowedemployers to refuse to provide insurance coverage for health services they disagreed with, includingcontraceptives.

The GOP candidates with the exception of Grant said they would support a similar measure.


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The new health care law allows religious organizations to opt out of covering contraceptives.

Hagan said that states should not be allowed to ban contraceptives, just as they should not be allowed toban any other safe, approved medication.

She also opposed a bill by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would ban abortions after 20 weeks ofpregnancy except when the mothers life is endangered or in cases of rape or incest. The House passed asimilar measure in June.

Tillis and Harris have said through spokesmen that they would have supported the bill. Brannon has said hesupports any legislation that would end abortion.

Hagan has also opposed efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, noting that the organization providespreventive care for both women and men.

Womens health should never be a political football, she said. We need to be focused on creating jobsand getting our economy back on track, not legislating womens access to care.

Hagans support

Hagans top contributor in her Senate career, at $404,000, has been EMILYs List, a political actioncommittee that funds the campaigns of Democratic women who support abortion rights, according to the

Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that tracks money in politics.

Abortion receives no mention on Hagans campaign website, under womens issues. It cites her support ofequal pay, reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and measures that increase womensaccess to preventive care, and stopped insurance companies from charging women more than they chargemen.

The last part is a reference to the new federal health law, although the website doesnt mention it by name.Hagans support for the Affordable Care Act sent her poll numbers tumbling.

Risky issue

Thomas Mills, a North Carolina Democratic political consultant, said Hagan was unlikely to focus hercampaign on abortion because its too divisive, but her supporters could use it to get out the vote.

In a September Elon University Poll, 45 percent of registered voters said state laws should make access toabortion more difficult, 41 percent said it should be less difficult, and 13 percent said they didnt know. Thepoll of 701 voters had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percent.

In a midterm election, even a small increase in turnout can be important in a close race, said KennethFernandez, an assistant professor of political science and director of the poll at the school.

But the issue carries risks for both sides.

Any strategy by Republicans or Democrats to use abortion to rally the troops could always backfire and

rally more opposition troops, Fernandez said.

Schoof: 202-383-6004

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North Carolina’s GOP candidates for US Senate strongly oppose women's rights

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