Colorado congressional candidate Jeff Hurd, a Republican, said last week in Pueblo that he would vote against a national 15-week abortion ban.
Hurd, who’s running in a conservative district spanning southern and western Colorado, previously said that abortion was “primarily a state issue,” and his opposition to a national abortion 15-week ban is consistent with that stance, which allows individual states to ban abortion outright or permit it throughout pregnancy.
“I’m a constitutionalist, so I believe in federal issues and state issues,” said Hurd when asked whether he’d vote for a 15-week ban in a video obtained by the Colorado Times Recorder. “So I would vote no on this.”
Hurd made the comment at the Pueblo Latino Chamber Mixer last week, photos of which have been posted by the Hurd campaign. During his primary race so far, Hurd has mostly avoided talking about abortion, beyond saying abortion policy should be mostly decided by the sates. In a Durango Herald candidate survey, published yesterday, he was the only participating candidate who did not answer the question about abortion. The Hurd campaign did not respond to a request for comment to the Colorado Times Recorder last year on the abortion topic and did not respond again today.
A handful of other Colorado GOP congressional candidates, like Hurd, say they oppose a national abortion ban and want the states to make policy decisions on abortion, but they haven’t said if they think states should ban abortion.
In the video taken at the June 13 event at Pueblo Zoo, Hurd twice dodged the question of whether he’d support a national 15-week ban, along the lines of Trump’s proposal to outlaw abortion nationally after about 15 weeks of pregnancy. Hurd responded by saying that the issue should be left to the states. Pressed a third time, Hurd said that, as a constitutionalist, he would vote against a 15-week national ban, according to the video, which was recorded without Hurd’s knowledge.
Here is a transcript of the video.
Hurd: So you have a daughter and a son.
Woman: [garbled] So, like a 15-week abortion ban, is that something you would support? Like what are you thoughts on that?
Hurd: What I’ve said is [garbled] there are federal issue and state issues and abortion is one of them- that’s an issue that should be left to the states is what I- is my perspective
Woman: If you’re elected to Congress and you have these [garbled] 15-week abortion ban, how would you vote?
Hurd: I believe this is an issue that should be left to the states.
Woman: But if it was in front of you? Because when you go, there are going to be things that you’re like, it shouldn’t be here but here it is.
Hurd: I’m a constitutionalist, so I believe in federal issues and state issues. So I would vote no on this.
