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Colorado Republican Senate nominee Joe O'Dea is up with a new ad this weekend that features his daughter highlighting how he supports abortion access in the first five months of a pregnancy.
The new ad, which began running this week, shows how the Republican candidate is looking to message on this issue as Democrats continue to point to the recent court decision overturning Roe vs. Wade as a rallying cry ahead of the midterms.
"My dad supports a woman's right to choose," Tayler O'Dea, the candidate's daughter, says in the ad, which goes on to feature news reports highlighting coverage of O'Dea's position on abortion.
The spot also features O'Dea saying: "For the first five months, that should be a woman's decision."
"Look, I think the first five months are critical. That should be a woman’s decision with her doctor. And after that, exceptions: rape, incest, medical necessity, those should be, again, between a woman and her doctor. And I’m going to vote that way," he said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
The issue has been a central one as the Republican tries to make inroads in a blue state. Last month, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet put out an ad featuring women criticizing O'Dea on abortion access and noting that he's said he would have voted to confirm the justices that Republican presidents nominated to the court, justices who ultimately voted to overturn Roe.
Colorado Democrats have also seized on the recent proposal by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham of setting a national ban at abortions past 15 weeks to argue that supporting O'Dea would help "give Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans the majority they need to push a national abortion ban." And Democrats have criticized him for his vote on a 2020 ballot measure that didn’t include those exceptions.
