Congressman Tim Ryan, now running for a Senate seat from Ohio, recently came out in support of the smallest of limits on abortion — a prohibition in the third trimester. Ryan is taking this position because he is in a tight race against the pro-life Republican candidate J.D. Vance. Ryan hopes to pick off enough moderate and independent voters to win. But Ohio voters should not be fooled.
Ryan was once a pro-life congressman but switched positions in 2016. By 2018, he was criticizing pregnancy resource centers that offer free counseling, diapers, and other support to pregnant women as “fake health centers” and lambasted the Supreme Court for not requiring them to promote abortions.
Top line: Ryan won’t actually vote to support limits on abortion while in the Senate. Indeed, he wants a restoration of Roe v. Wade.
DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS ‘NEVER BEEN GOOD AT STRATEGIC POLITICAL DECISIONS’: TIM RYAN
Voters who want limits on abortion have a clear choice: Vance, who wants a national 15-week abortion ban.
Yes, it is good news when someone says they oppose abortions, and the pro-life movement certainly should work to limit abortions wherever it can. But late-term abortions are about 15,000 or 1% of all abortions. Ryan offers only these few the faintest of support. He’s OK with the 99% remainder being aborted. But that makes his positions out of touch with a majority of people.
A Harvard University poll in June found that half of registered voters support limits on abortion at six weeks. An earlier Harvard poll in 2021 found that 56% of voters supported limits on abortion after 15 weeks.
Meanwhile, Ryan relies on the public’s misunderstanding of Roe. Despite claims that a majority of Americans support the 1973 Supreme Court decision, polls consistently find that Americans want elected officials and voters to decide on abortion laws, not judges. A return to Roe would put the issue of abortion back into the hands of judges.
Tim Ryan is not a champion for the unborn. Pro-life voters should be aware of that.
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Matt Lamb is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an associate editor for the College Fix and has previously worked for Students for Life of America and Turning Point USA.
