In a race that might resolve management of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., is attacking his challenger, Republican Tim Sheehy, for his stance on abortion.
The Montana Senate race is considered one of a half-dozen tight contests throughout the nation through which Democrats are defending seats wanted to maintain their one-seat majority. If Republicans flip Tester’s seat, they might take over the chamber even when they fail to oust Democrats in any of the opposite key races.
In a sequence of Fb adverts launched in early September, Tester’s marketing campaign stated Sheehy helps banning abortion with no exceptions.
One advert says, “Tim Sheehy needs to remove the liberty to decide on what occurs with your individual physique, and provides that energy to politicians. Sheehy would let politicians like him ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape or to avoid wasting a lady’s life, and criminalize girls. We will’t let Tim Sheehy take our freedom away.”
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One other advert says, “Reproductive well being care selections are between sufferers and their medical doctors, not politicians. Tim Sheehy needs to let politicians resolve by permitting them to ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape and even to avoid wasting a lady’s life.”
Outdoors teams have additionally used this speaking level. On its “Shady Sheehy” web site, a pro-Tester political motion committee known as Final Finest Place PAC says Sheehy “helps letting politicians ban abortion with no exceptions, even to avoid wasting a lady’s life.”
This framing of Sheehy’s stance is deceptive, as a result of Sheehy says he favors exceptions for rape, incest and the lifetime of the pregnant girl. However it has a component of fact, as a result of he’s additionally articulated help for states making their very own selections on what parameters to set for abortion coverage, and this might empower legislators to disregard his recommendation about together with exceptions.
Tester’s proof: Sheehy needs abortion left to states
Tester’s marketing campaign pointed to a Could Montana Public Radio interview through which Sheehy stated abortion limits “have to be left to every state,” which is allowed beneath the Supreme Courtroom’s 2022 Dobbs resolution, which overturned the nationwide abortion protections beneath the 1973 resolution Roe v. Wade.
Taking this place opens the door to Montana legislators enacting a no-exceptions coverage, Tester’s marketing campaign stated in an announcement to PolitiFact. Ten states now have an abortion ban with out rape or incest exceptions, in line with the well being coverage analysis group KFF. Each state that bans abortion contains an exception for the lifetime of the pregnant girl, KFF discovered.
Tester marketing campaign additionally stated the state’s Republican Get together platform for 2024 requires “a whole ban on elective abortion” with out mentioning any exceptions.
Sheehy’s anti-abortion stance permits for rape, well being exceptions
Sheehy’s web site calls him “proudly pro-life,” and he’s campaigning in opposition to abortion. He opposes a measure on Montana’s November poll that may amend the Montana Structure to supply the best to “make and perform selections about one’s personal being pregnant, together with the best to abortion.”
In July, we rated False Sheehy’s assertion that Tester and different Democrats have voted for “elective abortions as much as and together with the second of delivery. Wholesome, 9-month-year-old child killed in the mean time of delivery.”
However opposite to the advert’s message, Sheehy has voiced help for exceptions.
In a Montana Public Radio interview in Could, Sheehy was requested, “Sure or no, do you help a federal ban on abortion?”
Sheehy stated, “I’m proudly pro-life and help commonsense protections for when a child can really feel ache, in addition to exceptions for rape, incest, and the lifetime of the mom, and I imagine any additional limits have to be left to every state.”
And in a June debate with Tester, Sheehy stated, “I’ll at all times defend the three rights for ladies: rape, incest, lifetime of the mom.”
The points part of Sheehy’s marketing campaign web site doesn’t say that he has a no-exceptions stance, nor does it say he would “criminalize girls” who’ve abortions.
In an announcement, the Sheehy marketing campaign informed PolitiFact that the advert mischaracterizes Sheehy’s abortion place. Permitting no exceptions “has by no means been Tim’s place,” the marketing campaign stated.
Our ruling
The Tester marketing campaign’s advert says Sheehy “would let politicians like him ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape or to avoid wasting a lady’s life, and criminalize girls.”
Sheehy has stated he helps abortion ban exceptions for rape or to avoid wasting a pregnant girl’s life. We discovered no cases of him saying he could be OK with states criminalizing girls who obtain abortions in violation of state legal guidelines.
What offers the advert a kernel of fact is that Sheehy has voiced help for letting states resolve abortion parameters inside their borders. The Tester marketing campaign argues that this implies Sheehy would successfully allow legislators to cross abortion restrictions that don’t embrace exceptions or that criminalize girls.
The Tester marketing campaign’s argument depends on hypotheticals and ignores Sheehy’s said help for exceptions, giving a deceptive impression of Sheehy’s place.
We charge it Principally False.