LANSING — It might be April Fools’ Day, but Michiganders won’t be fooled by Mike Rogers, Peter Meijer, Sandy Pensler, and Justin Amash’s extensive anti-abortion records. The GOP Senate candidates have already tried to hide their support for banning abortion – but their records are clear.
Here’s the Michigan Republican Senate candidates’s records on banning reproductive health care:
- Mike Rogers lobbied for “a nationwide abortion ban,” co-sponsored and voted for anti-abortion bills that would have criminalized and banned abortion, and supported the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. In Congress, Rogers co-sponsored four bills that could have banned IVF. Rogers refuses to protect IVF in the Senate and won’t answer for his past anti-IVF votes. If Rogers had “lived in Michigan instead of Florida” in 2022, he would have voted against Proposal 3.
- Peter Meijer supports a national abortion ban and opposes exceptions for rape and incest. In Congress, Meijer voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act. Meijer called the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade “tremendous.” He co-sponsored a bill that could have banned IVF, and he refuses to answer if he’d sponsor the Life at Conception Act again in the Senate.
- Sandy Pensler called Roe v. Wade “tyrannical” and “terrible.” Pensler said that he has “the same position on being pro-life as President Reagan and President Trump.”
- Justin Amash supports an abortion ban, co-sponsored a bill to restrict IVF, and is “100% pro-life.” Amash believes that “life begins at conception.”
See for yourself:
The Gander: Mike Rogers tries to distance Senate campaign from his anti-abortion record
- About two months into his campaign, Rogers appears to have deployed a new strategy for winning over Michigan voters: Hoping Michiganders forget about his 14 years in Congress, and the decades that Rogers spent railing against reproductive rights and lobbying for a nationwide abortion ban.
- Rogers has long made clear that he opposes reproductive freedom in Michigan—including voicing support for a near-total abortion ban in response to an MLive candidate survey in 2010, where he clearly stated “abortions should be legal only to prevent the death of the mother.”
- More recently, after Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion care was overturned last year, Rogers reportedly told the Daily Mining Gazette that he supported the decision—and vowed to back additional restrictions to care, such as a “full ban on federal funding for abortion.”
- And had he lived in Michigan instead of Florida last year, Rogers told reporters that he would’ve voted against Proposal 3 to cement the right to reproductive freedom—including abortion care—into the state Constitution, which passed with about 56% of the vote last year.
- His congressional record is also littered with votes for anti-abortion bills. In 2012, Rogers voted for a bill that would’ve banned most abortions (without exceptions for rape or incest). And about one year later, he co-sponsored legislation with US Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that sought to ban and criminalize abortions across the country.
NBC: “Former Rep. Mike Rogers, who is running for Senate in Michigan and co-sponsored a series of measures attempting to define human life as beginning at the moment of fertilization…”
Detroit News: “[Rogers] did not commit to supporting legislation to protect it at the federal level… Asked about how the fetal personhood bills he sponsored in Congress squared with his support for IVF, Rogers refused to discuss the legislation… [Meijer] did not say whether he’d sponsor the Life at Conception Act again if elected to the Senate.”
The Gander: Anti-Abortion Republican leans on billionaire family name to boost Senate campaign
- [Meijer] has said he opposes reproductive rights—even in cases of rape and incest—and that he supports federal legislation to ban or restrict abortion.
- Last year, Meijer told the Detroit News that he supported the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and that he “does see a need for federal legislation to ban or restrict abortion.” Like Rogers, he also said he would oppose exceptions for rape or incest in that federal ban.
- Meijer also voted against the federal Women’s Health Protection Act last year, which aimed to create new federal legal protections for the right to provide and access reproductive health care.
MLive: Congressmen Peter Meijer, Bill Huizenga applaud Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade
- … “This ruling is a tremendous step toward upholding this crucial moral responsibility,” Meijer said in a prepared statement.
Michigan Independent: “‘My wife and I think that abortion is a bad thing and that government should do what it can to limit it. I think Roe v. Wade was a terrible decision by a court, really an almost tyrannical decision by nine people on the rest of the country.’ ‘I have the same position on being pro-life as President Reagan and President Trump,’ Pensler said in a July 2018 debate.”
The New Republic: “While [Amash’s] support for an abortion ban after 20 weeks is alienating…”
Fox 17: Amash: “As a person who is… 100% pro-life.”
American Journal News: Michigan GOP senate candidate Justin Amash voted to restrict IVF
- … A review of [Amash’s] record shows a litany of anti-abortion votes that are in-lock step with the most extreme members of his party.
- In 2009, when Amash was serving in the Michigan House of Representatives, he co-sponsored legislation to strictly regulate in vitro fertilization.
- In congress, Amash received an A+ rating from the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group, which scores lawmakers on how anti-abortion they are. The group celebrated Amash’s co-sponsoring of a 2019 bill that sought to ban taxpayer funding for abortion care. They also noted Amash’s opposition to the Equality Act which would’ve classified efforts to ban abortion as discrimination.
CNN: Where Justin Amash stands on key issues
- Amash has said he opposes abortion…
- In 2010, he said he believes life begins at conception, according to the Library of Congress’s archived version of his campaign website. He is against the use of federal funds for abortions.
The Dispatch: “Abortion is poised to dictate the outcome of a key U.S. Senate race in Michigan… the debate over abortion access is already having an outsized impact on what is unfolding as a toss-up campaign, political operatives on both sides of the aisle tell Dispatch Politics… Abortion has a recent history of swaying big statewide contests.”
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