08/27/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 08/27/2024 11:24
In NH GOP Primary Debate, Kelly Ayotte Brags About Getting Neil Gorsuch on SCOTUS to Overturn Roe v. Wade
Kelly Ayotte: "I was proud to do that."
In last night's Republican primary debate, candidate for governor Kelly Ayotte bragged about her work helping to usher in the most anti-choice Supreme Court in modern history and overturning Roe v. Wade by working to help confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, claiming: "The Trump Administration asked me to help the administration get Justice Gorsuch, the first Justice on the Supreme Court, and I was proud to do that."
Under Ayotte's coaching, Gorsuch "refused to take a position on Roe" during his confirmation hearing. He would later vote to overturn fifty years of settled law protecting the right to an abortion just "10 minutes after [the decision] hit his desk."
WATCH HERE:
Despite her election-year lies, last night's debate performance makes clear that Kelly Ayotte is proud of her record helping to overturn Roe v. Wade, a decision which she previously called "wrongly decided." In the U.S. Senate, Ayotte also voted for a national abortion ban, voted to defund Planned Parenthood four times - which she has also promised to do as governor - and earned a "100% rating" from The National Right to Life Committee, one of the nation's oldest and largest anti-abortion organizations.
Ayotte is trying to mislead Granite Staters about her record because she knows her position is unpopular: polling earlier this year commissioned by the DGA found that 63% of New Hampshire voters oppose the overturning Roe, with only 28% saying they support it; 64% said they would "prefer a governor who supports protecting abortion rights" with only 26% who "prefer a governor who wants to restrict abortion rights," and 53% said learning about Kelly Ayotte's record of supporting the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe makes them less likely to vote for her. Polling from UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion found that "more than half of Granite State Republicans surveyed (66%), believe there should be a right to get an abortion in every state in the United States," putting Kelly Ayotte at odds with members of her own party.
"While Kelly Ayotte has spent weeks and millions of dollars on ads lying to New Hampshire voters about her extreme anti-choice record, last night she managed to show her true colors - and reminded Granite Staters why they can't trust her - when she couldn't resist bragging about her role in overturning Roe v. Wade and threatening the reproductive freedom of every New Hampshire woman," said DGA States Press Secretary Emma O'Brien. "Kelly Ayotte has spent her career working to outlaw abortion and deny women the care they need, and last night's debate stage slip-up is just more proof that she would do the same from the corner office."