MICHIGAN — Former U.S. Representative and current MAGA candidate for Senate, Mike Rogers has a decades-long track record of opposing reproductive rights. The Michigan Democratic Party is highlighting Rogers’ record as he faces off against Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin for the open United States Senate seat.
In 2009, Rogers co-sponsored a bill that called “The Right to Life” Act. The bill, among other things, would punish someone for helping another person travel across state lines for reproductive care. The text of the bill can be read here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-bill/634/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22abortion%22%7D&s=1&r=16&overview=open#content
According to a post by the Michigan Democratic Party, Rogers:
- Rogers spent his time in Congress “lobbying for a national abortion ban” and co-sponsored and voted for numerous bills that would have banned abortion.
- In Congress, Rogers co-sponsored four bills “attempting to define human life as beginning at the moment of fertilization” which would jeopardize access to IVF and contraception, including IUDs and Plan B.
- Rogers refuses to commit to supporting legislation to protect IVF at the federal level.
- When “asked about how the fetal personhood bills he sponsored in Congress squared” with his so-called support for IVF, “Rogers refused to discuss the legislation” and “very much essentially punted” the question.
- If Rogers had “lived in Michigan instead of Florida in 2022,” he would have “voted against Proposal 3 to cement the right to reproductive freedom—including abortion care—into the state Constitution.”
For Rogers and other Republicans in the country, running for office after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision has forced them to tell voters exactly where they stand on reproductive rights. As large majorities show support for access to abortion, Republicans like Rogers are trying to run and hide from their unpopular stances and records.
In 2022, Michigan voters had a chance to weigh in on abortion with Proposal 3. The proposed Constitutional Amendment passed by a wide margin 56-43 percent showing that anti-choice extremism is highly unpopular. However, as the base of the GOP becomes more and more extreme, it could be hard for any Republican to fully distance themselves from their own record, their own ideas and the base of the party.
In contrast, Democrat Elissa Slotkin has been endorsed by reproductive rights groups across the political spectrum and has a record of protecting a woman’s right to choose.
