Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) would not commit to any abortion restrictions when pressed on the issue Sunday.
The candidate to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate insisted decisions on whether to have the procedure are between a “woman and her doctor” but would not commit to any legal limits during an interview with anchor Dana Bash on CNN‘s State of the Union on Sunday.
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“Ultimately, this needs to be a decision between the woman and her doctor. And, of course, we don’t support abortion at the end of term, unless, of course, there is an extraordinary circumstance, where you’re eight months into a pregnancy and something very tragic is happening in that pregnancy, where you have a room, you have bought toys, you have clothing for the baby, everyone’s excited, and then something tragic happens,” Ryan said. “That needs to be left up to the doctor, not [Ohio Senate candidate] J.D. Vance or [Texas Sen.] Ted Cruz or anybody else. That’s a very serious situation.”
When pressed again by Bash on whether he would support any restrictions on abortion, even for late-term abortions, Ryan refused to say he would favor any legal restrictions.
“No one’s supporting abortion towards the end, absolutely. No one’s for that. That rarely happens,” Ryan said. “But what we’re saying is, are we going to preserve the woman’s right to choose at the end to save her own life? I mean, come on. Like, should the government really be in there? That sounds very anti-American. And the extreme position is like where J.D. Vance, where, if you’re raped, you are forced to have the rapist’s baby, where there’s no exceptions at all.”
Ryan then described people pushing for abortion restrictions as espousing an extremist view and alluded to the Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the issue of abortion access to states.
“That’s the extremism we’re talking about right now. And we are talking about 50 years of established law, the status quo. That’s what I’m for that seemed to work pretty well for the last 50 years,” Ryan said.
Ryan is facing Vance in November for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Rob Portman. Ryan’s opponent in the Senate election criticized him over his voting record being inconsistent with his campaign advertising during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures.
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RealClearPolitics has the Ohio Senate race rated as a “toss-up,” but a recent poll from Trafalgar shows Vance leading Ryan 50% to 45% among likely voters.
