Jeff Crank, the Republican competing against Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams for the 5th Congressional District nomination, has been endorsed by the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Candidate Fund. Crank, a regional vice president at the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity and host of its American Potential podcast, has called abortion a “convenience” and expressed support for a national abortion ban.
“Look, I’m pro-life, and I’m always going to vote to save unborn babies, period,” said Crank during an April 19 appearance on the Jeff and Bill Show. “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.”
Williams is also an outspoken opponent of abortion. While serving in the Colorado House in 2022, Williams introduced personhood legislation that would have charged abortion patients and providers with murder.
In a news release, former Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave, SBA Pro-Life America’s vice president of government affairs, announced Crank’s endorsement. “Jeff Crank has spent his career speaking up for the voiceless and we’re proud to endorse him,” she said. “Jeff’s pro-life convictions are rooted in principle as well as deeply personal. As a father and an uncle by adoption, whose family has been blessed by the courage of birth moms who chose life, he has seen firsthand how every life saved from abortion has a ripple effect for generations. As Biden and the Democrats seek to impose abortion on demand with no limits across the entire nation, even for painful late-term abortions, we can count on Jeff to stand up to their extremism and work to ensure that all women have life-affirming options. Pro-life Coloradans deserve strong allies fighting for them in Washington and we encourage voters to get out and support him on June 25.”
While in office, Musgrave was staunchly anti-abortion, supporting 2003’s Partial Birth Abortion Ban. Musgrave also opposed public funding for embryonic stem cell research. Like Crank, in a 2005 subcommittee hearing, Musgrave described a pharmacist’s refusal to fill a prescription for emergency contraception as an issue of “inconvenience.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America also opposes exceptions for abortions in the cases of rape or incest. Susan B. Anthony president Marjorie Dannenfelser, a Gold Circle member of secretive Council for National Policy, criticized Sen. Linsey Graham (R-SC) for rape exceptions in his “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.”
“I agree that the rape exception is abominable,” she told LifeSiteNews in 2015. “I also know that with it, we were able to move forward, and we have the potential of saving 15,000 to 18,000 children a year. No one should give up or give over a rape exception unless there is simply no chance of saving those other children. I really believe that.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is dedicated to “ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives,” according to a news release. The group has been funded by a variety of far-right organizations, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Heritage Foundation, Family Policy Alliance, and others. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has also been involved in lobbying against the Equal Rights Amendment, which guarantees equality of rights under the law for all persons regardless of sex.
