It’s been a fast-and-furious couple of days in the race for Michigan’s newly drawn 7th District in which state Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, is seeking to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Lansing.
After finding himself under social media fire for scrubbing his website of all abortion-related information, and claiming the right to choose isn’t “most salient” to Michigan voters, Barrett added a new section to his site today that Slotkin says makes false claims about her own stance on access to abortion.
Last week, Barrett scrubbed the “Values” language from his website, which detailed his belief that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.
When the Detroit News asked Barrett about the changes, he said that he wasn’t aware of the rationale behind the site updates but said it was probably being edited to focus on “the issues that were most salient right now.” Yet Michigan voters named abortion as their top issue in two polls in the last week alone. (You can check out info on the polls here and here.)
Barrett’s website scrub quickly gained traction on social media Sunday, with some viewing him as part of a larger trend by GOP candidates across the country — including Arizona candidate for U.S. Senate Blake Masters — disguising their support for banning abortion in all circumstances.
The language Barrett scrubbed: “I am a Christian and I believe our elected leaders have a responsibility to represent the values our faith teaches. Protecting individual rights includes protecting the unborn. Ashley and I have been involved in the pro-life movement our entire lives and as an elected leader, I will always work to protect life from conception.”
Then, Monday morning, Barrett added in this new “Life” section (below), which says nothing about his own views and deflects the issue onto Slotkin:
This new posting falsely characterizes her own stance on abortion, Slotkin said in a release.
“I support the 50-year precedent set in Roe v. Wade, giving women the right to privacy in their own personal health decisions, including whether to end a pregnancy, up to the point of viability,” Slotkin said. “If a woman’s health is at risk beyond that, a woman and her doctor — not the federal government— should make the decision about whether to terminate a pregnancy.”
The Congresswoman also supports the Michigan ballot initiative that is poised to be added to the November ballot.
“Michiganders will have the opportunity to choose between the Roe standard, which we lived with for 50 years, and Michigan’s 1931 ban on abortion, which bans abortions even in the case of violent rape or incest, and criminalizes women and doctors in the process,” Slotkin said.
Prior to Roe’s reversal, Barrett sent out fundraising flyers saying he was “100% Pro-Life – No Exceptions.” He also joined Republicans in the state legislature in a now-failed attempt to reinstate the 1931 law.
Read Maria Stuart’s subscriber-only column of Aug. 29, “Barrett scrubs website as Republicans continue to frighten Michigan women,” by clicking here.
