Colorado Dems Launch Video Highlighting Joe O’Dea’s True Record on Abortion
Colorado Democrats responded to GOP Senate candidate Joe O’Dea’s misleading TV ad with a video highlighting his true record on abortion. Dishonest O’Dea is desperate to rewrite his anti-choice record, however he can’t erase his vote for a 22-week abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest, saying that he would have voted to confirm the justices who overturned Roe, or saying that he wants to go to the Senate to bring “balance to women’s rights.”
Colorado Sun columnist Mike Littwin highlighted that O’Dea’s views on abortion “would severely restrict abortion in states like Colorado...” And CPR News’ Purplish podcast reported on how O’Dea’s position on abortion is out of the step with the majority of Coloradans. Listen HERE.
O’Dea had this plan. In bluish Colorado, he would reject the Big Lie. And in winning the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate — against Ron Hanks, who is a Lauren-Boebert-level crazy — O’Dea would also be both pro-life and pro-choice. I know that sounds a little like splitting the baby, but it seems to have been a good move politically in strongly pro-choice Colorado.
Although personally pro-life, O’Dea decided he could support a bill in which women could choose to have an abortion in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy—after which abortions would be banned, with exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother.
In other words, it’s sort of like Graham’s bill plus five weeks. I’m not sure why 15 or 20 weeks, but I’m guessing it’s just that they’re somewhere close to the middle.
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It didn’t mean O’Dea was in the clear. He was having to explain why he recently voted for a referendum that would have allowed abortions only up to 22 weeks, but without any exceptions thereafter.
Coloradans rejected the idea by a 59-41 vote.
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The thing is, what a 15-week nationwide ban would do, or a 20-week nationwide ban would do, is it would severely restrict abortion in states like Colorado, which has no restrictions. The woman decides. The doctor advises.
Put it at 15 or 20 weeks, choice turns into a limited choice, with the possibility of more limitations on the way.
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I don’t know how close O’Dea is, or how moderate he might be for a Republican. He has said he wants to work across the aisle, but in an interview with 9News’ Kyle Clark, O’Dea couldn’t come up with a single Democratic bill that he would help support. And as for women’s rights, O’Dea told Clark he wanted “balance,” while not quite explaining what that means.
O’Dea likes to say that he’s not running on culture-war issues, which is what you say when you don’t agree with the majority of voters. But now that Graham has reminded Coloradans what a Republican abortion bill might actually look like, and what it would mean for Colorado, the calculation for O’Dea just got that much harder.