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Despite Election Day being about 7 months away, the work of some internet sleuths has already caused waves in New Mexico political circles.
In a high-profile congressional race, abortion is quickly becoming one of the major focuses, partly thanks to a 4-year-old video of one of the candidates.
In the video republished by Huffington Post, Republican candidate for Congress Yvette Herrell outlined her hardline view on abortion—or at least her view on abortion when she was running for Congress in 2020.
The video was from a Republican Party of Valencia County candidate forum including Herrell and her two primary opponents that year. Herrell emphatically touted her “Solid, 100 percent pro-life voting record,” when asked by the moderator if Herrell would “plead guilty” if she were hypothetically indicted for being pro-life.
“I wish we could have eliminated all abortion in this state,” Herrell said in the video.
Her comments in 2020 are in line with her stances on abortion when she was in Congress from 2021 through 2022. In 2021, she signed on to the ultimately unsuccessful Life at Conception Act, which states that human life begins at “the moment of fertilization.”
Herrell tells The Paper. in a statement that, “Since the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade was handed down by the Supreme Court, abortion policies are no longer a federal issue.”
“This court ruling has now given the responsibility of such policies to each individual state,” she says.
Her expected Election Day opponent, Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, says Herrell’s 2020 comments are the true indicator of where she stands on abortion.
“It’s clear Yvette Herrell doesn’t think women deserve access to reproductive health care in New Mexico,” Vasquez tells The Paper. in a statement. “This video is testament to the position she’s always held—she wants to eliminate abortion with no exceptions, even in cases of rape, incest, or health and life of the mother. Her extreme agenda to strip people of their rights is wrong for New Mexico and our country.”
Well before June’s primary elections, in which both Herrell and Vasquez are running unopposed, Democrats are clamoring to use Herrell’s own words to undermine her current campaign, which has wiped any mention of abortion from its website.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, who represents the state’s 1st Congressional District, urged voters to pick Vasquez through a social media post and wrote that “the decision couldn’t be clearer.”
“Yvette Herrell wants to eliminate all abortions and if elected, will join the extreme Republicans seeking to ban abortions nationwide,” Stansbury’s post reads.
Herrell narrowly lost her reelection bid for the state’s 2nd Congressional District to Vasquez in 2022. Months before Harrell lost the 2021 election, the district was redrawn and now includes the South Valley and a sizable chunk of the Westside. State Republicans unsuccessfully contested the current district map in court, arguing it unfairly favored Democrats. The Cook Political Report currently has the district listed as a “Democrat toss up.”
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