Embattled Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., has made the so-called “war on women” a centerpiece of his frantic campaign for re-election, often accusing his Republican challenger, Rep. Cory Gardner, of supporting draconian anti-abortion laws.
It has been so central to his campaign’s message that a journalist recently noted people were calling him “Senator Mark Uterus.”
And in an attempt to boost his image among supporters of “a woman’s right to choose,” Udall put himself on record again this week as backing abortions in almost all forms right up until birth.
Vast majorities of Americans have long supported bans on abortions performed during the last three months of pregnancy, with smaller majorities supporting a ban even during the second three months of pregnancy, according to Gallup data. But widespread distaste doesn’t appear to have dampened the zeal of Udall, who voted against bans on partial-birth abortion in both 2000 and 2003.
During the Denver Post’s senatorial debate, a moderator asked: “We know that you support a woman’s right to choose, but given the advances in scientific understanding of fetal development, where pregnant mothers know at which week babies grow fingernails and can swallow, would you support a ban on late-term abortions, and if so, at what week?”
As a way of saying he supports late-term abortions, Udall cited an example of a mother who discovered eight months into her pregnancy that her child had a brain deformity.
“To demand that that woman carry that child to term would be a form of government intervention that none of us want to see happen. We ought to respect the women of Colorado and their point of view,” Udall said.
Udall’s debate response is similar to one he gave in a recent interview with Fox 31’s Eli Stokols, wherein he shrugged off questions regarding late-term and sex-selective abortions.
“So you believe in a woman’s absolute right to make her own health care decisions, even if sometimes that includes late-term or sex-selective abortions?” Stokols asked.
Udall replied: “Look, we should trust the woman and her family and her religious counselors and the people she wants to help her make that decision.”
The Colorado senator is currently locked in a furious midterm battle with Gardner, the Republican challenger holding the slimmest lead of 45.2 percent to 44.6 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
