During an April 19 interview on KNUS radio’s Jeff and Bill Show, Colorado congressional candidate Jeff Crank stated his support for a national abortion ban.
“Well, yes,” replied Crank, a Republican, when asked by co-host Jeff Hunt if he supports a national ban.
“Look, I’m pro-life, and I’m always going to vote to save unborn babies, period,” continued Crank. “That’s just where I’m going to be. I owe it to voters to tell them that, so that they know that when they decide to vote for me or against me. That’s where I am on the life issue. You know, I believe that we ought to probably — we should have an exception for rape and incest, even though, look, I believe that abortion is murder no matter what.”
Crank, who’s running for a congressional seat in the Colorado Springs area, called abortion mostly a “convenience” for women.
“So it’s convenience; ‘Well, I got pregnant, and therefore I want to abort the child,'” said Crank, explaining the thought process about abortion as he sees it.
According to Crank, 97% of abortions in the United States are “nontherapeutic; they are for convenience.”
Co-host Bill Thorpe asked for clarification on what Crank meant about it being convenient to have an abortion.
“I define it as, it doesn’t have anything to do with rape, incest or the life of the mother,” said Crank, adding that life begins at conception.
Crank told the story of a woman he met several months ago named Nicole who has two sons with severe learning disabilities. She told him that when her children are playing in the park, they are often out of control, due to their medical condition. And people will come up to her and say they spank their children, implying that she should spank hers as well. She told Crank that this made her feel hurt.
Nicole asked Crank to make sure in discussions about abortion that he should not talk about if a child is wanted. She noted that her children would never be wanted in life. And all children should be wanted.
“Life isn’t about a choice about whether someone wants the child,” said Crank. “There are unwanted children born every day. And you know what? There are gracious and good people who want them. That’s called adoption sometimes, and other times it’s called, family members stepping in.”
“But she ends up having the kid, and she spends the rest of her life thanking God that she made that decision,” said Crank.
Thorpe noted that in his story about Nicole, Crank’s facts do not necessarily line up as both of the children were wanted. Despite some people possibly implying on the playground that she should not have had unruly children, she still decided to have them and wants them.
“The thing is, that story to me seems to reinforce the message of the mother making the choice,” said Thorpe.
Crank continued to say that Thorpe’s opinion was wrong and claimed that a society should not dictate whether a person should live or die.
The conversation continued, and Thorpe asked Crank again when life begins.
“If God designed our bodies perfectly, why did he design the female body to shed fertilized embryos on a regular basis?” said Thorpe.
Crank stated that embryos are not fertilized while Thorpe claimed that fertilized eggs can sometimes not implant in the womb. Therefore, he said that God designed women to “shed fertilized eggs.”
“If life begins in conception, then God has designed our bodies to not have every child live. Yeah, so there’s a choice involved. Inherently, God has made the choice,” said Thorpe.
Crank continued to disagree with Thorpe and told him that God said in the Bible that he knew people before in the womb.
The conversation surrounding abortion ended with Thorpe stating that Nicole still made a choice to have her children.
Crank isn’t the only Colorado GOP congressional candidate who, if elected to Congress, would vote to ban abortion nationally — going beyond the current Supreme Court guidelines, established after the overturn of Roe, which leaves the states to create their own abortion laws.
Colorado lawmaker Mike Lynch, for example, who’s a candidate for an eastern Colorado district, initially supported a national ban and then flipped. Notably, Lynch is a co-sponsor of a bill in the Colorado House that would outlaw abortion, even for pregnancies resulting from rape.
Other GOP congressional candidates oppose a national abortion ban, but unlike Lynch, their stances on state restrictions aren’t known. These candidates include Gabe Evans, who’s running in Colorado’s competitive Eighth Congressional District (CD8), located north of Denver. Evans’s primary opponent, Janak Joshi, supports a national ban, as do three GOP primary candidates in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District (CD4) on the eastern Plains: U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), state Representatives Richard Holtorf (R-Akron) and Lynch.
Crank is running in the GOP primary against Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams, who’s backed an abortion ban in Colorado and appears to support a national ban as well.
The primary election is June 25, and the winner in Crank’s race will likely triumph in November’s general election in the Republican-dominated district. The Congressional District 5 (CD5) seat is currently held by retiring Republican Doug Lamborn.
