Slotkin targets GOP's Rogers on abortion with new ads

DETROIT — Democrat Elissa Slotkin's campaign for U.S. Senate in Michigan dropped two TV ads Wednesday morning attacking her Republican opponent Mike Rogers on his anti-abortion record, marking the first time she's deployed the issue on the air in the general election.

The 30-second spots are part of a multi-million dollar ad buy that will appear on broadcast, cable and digital platforms statewide, according to Slotkin's campaign. They come eight weeks ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

One of the ads features a woman identified as Sarah from Byron Center, who says on camera that she had had four miscarriages and got a "devastating" call 19 weeks into her fifth pregnancy: "I had a child dying inside of me."

"All of our options were terrible, but Mike Rogers thinks it's okay for politicians to make those medical decisions that saved my life," Sarah says. "Rogers even supported a nationwide ban on abortion. I'm scared that Mike Rogers will continue to take away my rights."

The ad references a 2000 questionnaire by the Michigan Catholic Conference in which Rogers, as a candidate for Congress, indicated that he supported a constitutional amendment "to protect the right of unborn children."

The questionnaire was part of Rogers' congressional papers archived by Oakland University, according to Jezebel. In the same questionnaire, Rogers wrote that he opposes abortion "at any time except to save the life of the mother."

Slotkin's other ad targeting Rogers on Wednesday more broadly highlights his record and cites a 1994 Lansing State Journal article in which the former congressman said he supports "all restrictions on abortion." Rogers won a race for a seat in the Michigan Senate that year.

While Rogers had an anti-abortion record during his seven terms in Congress, he has since shifted his position, saying after he launched his Senate campaign last year that he wouldn't support federal restrictions in Congress that are "inconsistent" with Michigan's 2022 constitutional amendment broadly protecting access to the procedure.

"This is one of the most difficult decisions a woman will have to make in her life — a position that many never imagined they’d even find themselves in. I strongly believe those decisions should be made solely by her, her family, her doctor and her God," Rogers said in a statement Wednesday in response to the ads.

"I’ve been perfectly clear: Michigan came to a consensus and I will respect the will of the voters, as I have always done. This is simply a continuation of the congresswoman’s inability to tell the truth.”

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Roe v. Wade decision, which had protected access to abortion nationally, in June 2022, some some Republicans have proposed new federal restrictions.

Slotkin, a three-term congresswoman from Holly, in her campaign has stressed the need to codify protections for reproductive rights, saying Democrats need a five- or 10-year plan to get back to a federal right to abortion. On Republicans, she has said to "watch what they do, not what they say" about abortion and types of family planning like in vitro fertilization.

Rogers and Slotkin are vying for Michigan's open Senate seat, which is up for grabs due to Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, retiring.

In a Tuesday night debate, former President Donald Trump, who has defended his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, said he doesn't support a federal abortion ban, though he wouldn't directly answer a question about whether he'd veto such a measure.

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