In an interview last week, Colorado congressional candidate Gabe Evans said he didn’t remember how he voted on a 2020 ballot initiative that would have partially banned abortion, but he did recall that he and his wife “were split on the issue.”
The couple had conversations about it, Evans remembers, during which she tried to explain the “nuances to that female reproductive care stuff” that she learns about at her “doctors visits.”
He doesn’t go to those visits to the doctor because, “I don’t got the right parts,” he says, and therefore he must take her “word for it” because “what’s most important is that we figure out, how do we best protect life.”
In the interview, Evans says his wife’s experiences with miscarriages have shown him that the abortion issue is complex. Still, he says he’s “pro-life for a lot of reasons.” He’s on record as an opponent of Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to choose but was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2022 Dobbs decision.
Evans, who’s a state legislator representing the Ft. Luption area, didn’t respond to an email to his campaign seeking to know if he really thinks his “body parts” prevent him from fully understanding the details of women’s reproductive health and, if so, why does he think he’s qualified to oppose a women’s right to choose?
The issue came up in Evans’ July 11 interview (at 18:58) with conservative reporter Sherri Peif on her podcast Simpy Sherri To the Point, during which Peif asked Evans if he “supported the ballot initiative a few years ago that would have ended late-term abortion in Colorado.”
That measure, Proposition 115, would have banned abortion after 22 weeks and was soundly defeated in 2020 by 59% to 41%.
Prop 115 became a key issue in Colorado’s 2022 U.S. Senate race, in which the GOP candidate, Joe O’Dea, claimed to support Roe v. Wade, but he told a reporter that he voted for Proposition 115, which was more restrictive than Roe and would have rolled back abortion rights in Colorado.
Evans’ alleged memory lapse on how he voted on Prop 115, first reported in the Colorado Sun and then revealed again in the Peif interview, led the liberal commentators at Colorado Pols to write that he was paying “amnesia games.”
“Either Evans is admitting to some very early onset cognitive decline, or he doesn’t want how he voted on Proposition 115 in the public record,” wrote Colorado Pols.
Abortion is widely expected to be a key issue in Evans’ race in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, in part because many observers believe Caraveo’s pro-choice stance helped her win the seat in 2022.
Peif, who’s also the chair of the Congressional District 8 Republican Party, didn’t immediately return a voicemail asking if she thought it was odd that Evans didn’t remember his vote on Prop. 115, even though he did remember disagreeing with his wife on the matter.
Colorado’s 8th Congressional District is expected to be the battleground for one of the most competitive U.S. House races in the country. Caraveo, a physician, won the seat, which was created in Colorado after the 2020 U.S. Census, in 2022 by 1,632 votes. A Libertarian candidate in the race had 9,280 votes.
Below is a partial transcript of Peif’s July 11 podcast Simply Sherri To the Point:
Peif: I do actually have a question from one of the viewers, E.J., and so I’m going to ask because i think it’s an appropriate question, which I think I know the answer to. He said, ‘Gabe, I was wondering if you supported the ballot initiative a few years ago that would have ended late-term abortion in Colorado.'”
Evans: I think that was — what was that — the due-date-too-late 2022?
Peif: I think that was the one. That sounds right.
Evans: I am trying to remember how I voted on that one because my wife and I had some major discussions over that particular one. So if you don’t know my story, I am pro-life. I am pro-life for a lot of reasons, probably one of the most recent poignant ones is the fact that my wife and I, we’ve have two kids. We’ve also had eight miscarriages. And so, you know, I’ve seen the heartbeat on the ultrasound machine and then a few weeks later, when you go back for the follow-up visit, no more heartbeat. … And so, like I said, I honestly don’t remember — I remember my wife and I were split on that issue and I honestly don’t remember how I voted on that because we were having a lot of conversations about, ‘Can my wife then continue to get pregnancy-affirming care with all the nuances’ — I mean, again, I am not a woman. I know the difference between a man and a woman.
Peif: So you are not a birthing parent?
Evans: Yeah, no. So there is a lot of just like that, you know — like I know enough but there is a lot of nuances to that female reproductive care stuff that my wife is sitting there trying to explain to me about how this stuff all works together, and there are a lot of doctors that she goes to that I don’t go to because I don’t got the right parts.
Peif: Right.
Evans: And so she’s trying to explain to me what happens at these doctors visits, and I’m like at a certain point, I’m going to have to take your word for it because to me, that’s what’s most important is that we figure out, how do we best protect life. And life, there’s a lot of complexities to it, particularly when you get down to the realm of eight miscarriages and figuring out, okay, how do I protect life in this particular situation? How do I protect life in that particular situation?”
