One of the Democrats who’s running for governor is challenging a rival on the issue of abortion. Ag Secretary Patty Judge says Michael Blouin, the ex-state economic development chief who’s also a former congressman, needs to tell Iowans whether he’d back an amendment to the state constitution that would ban abortion.
Judge says when Blouin was a congressman in the 1970s, he backed amendments to the U.S. constitution that would ban abortion even in cases of rape or incest. Judge calls that “extreme” and out of the mainstream. She says Blouin needs to “clarify” his position on the abortion issue.
This past weekend, Blouin refused to “speculate” about what abortion restrictions he would or wouldn’t sign into law if he were governor. Judge says that’s hogwash. “It’s very, very important that the voters know exactly where people stand,” Judge says. “I am certainly willing to tell people quite clearly that I believe in a woman’s right to reproductive choice.”
Judge says with a change in the make-up of the U.S. Supreme Court, there’s a chance Roe v. Wade could be overturned, and the authority to regulate abortion would return to the states. Blouin is the only one of the six Democratic candidates for governor who does not back abortion rights. The two Republicans running for governor both oppose abortion.