GOP senate candidate Eric Hovde says he supports a 12- to 14-week abortion ban
‘I think somewhere in that time range is probably a reasonable time range,’ Hovde said.
Wisconsin Republican candidate for Senate Eric Hovde said in a recent interview that he supports a ban on abortion at 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy, citing countries in Western Europe as examples of countries that have the same restrictions he supports.
Hovde has gone from saying he was absolutely against abortion in 2012 to more recently saying women should be able to choose early on in pregnancy to his current support for restricting abortion after 14 weeks.
“I think Germany is at 12 weeks, France is at 14 weeks,” Hovde told the hosts of WISN’s UPFRONT, a TV news show, on May 19. “Almost all of Western Europe allows a woman the right to choose in the first trimester. But there becomes a point when a baby can be born healthy and alive that I’m opposed to having an abortion.”
While it’s true that abortion is legal for up to 12 weeks in Germany and 14 in France, both countries allow for abortion after those periods when the life of the pregnant person is in danger. Also, while it is true that a fetus is considered viable at 24 weeks, the survival rate is about 40% without significant medical intervention, and only 1% of abortions in the United States are done at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy.
During his previous U.S. Senate run in 2012, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Hovde, a wealthy business owner who is running against incumbent Democratic Sen.Tammy Baldwin, said he was “totally opposed to abortion.”
“Tammy Baldwin thinks women and their doctors should decide their own care,” Jackie Rosa, a campaign spokesperson for Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, said in a statement emailed to the Wisconsin Independent. “That’s why she is leading the fight to restore women’s freedoms through her Women’s Health Protection Act which will codify access to abortion for Wisconsin women and make sure that no politician or activist court can take away our freedoms again.”
When the UPFRONT hosts asked Hovde whether he would support a law restricting abortion care at around 12 to 15 weeks of pregnancy, the candidate said, “I think somewhere in that time range is probably a reasonable time range.”
However, Hovde opposes a national abortion ban, saying states should make the decision.
“I don’t think everything should be figured out at the national level, because certain states may have more restrictions and certain states may have a more open view.”
