Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is highlighting the abortion issue and criticizing his Republican opponent’s strong pro-life stance as the 2023 gubernatorial race heads into its final two months.
The Beshear campaign released an attack ad last week hitting Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Beshear’s challenger, for his support for a measure that bans all abortions with the exception of saving the mother from death or a disabling injury. Beshear’s ad pressing the abortion issue is airing in rural, urban, and suburban areas of Kentucky, according to the Associated Press.
“When a woman or girl becomes pregnant from rape, the trauma is unimaginable,” Jefferson County Prosecutor Erin White says in the ad. “Daniel Cameron thinks a 9-year-old rape survivor should be forced to give birth. Nobody — no child — should ever have to go through that.”
Beshear shared the ad on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing, “In this new ad, Prosecutor Erin White says that Daniel Cameron’s view that survivors of rape or incest—sometimes girls as young as nine—should be forced to give birth, is ‘extreme, and it’s dangerous.’ She’s right.”
In this new ad, Prosecutor Erin White says that Daniel Cameron’s view that survivors of rape or incest—sometimes girls as young as nine—should be forced to give birth, is “extreme, and it’s dangerous.”
She’s right. pic.twitter.com/tR11m9ii1P
— Andy Beshear (@AndyBeshearKY) September 1, 2023
Cameron’s campaign responded to the ad in a statement to The Daily Wire, pointing to Beshear’s track record of standing with the “extreme wing of the Democrat Party on abortion.”
“This desperate attack from Andy Beshear proves he’s losing ground and panicked. When it comes to the rights of criminals versus victims, Andy Beshear released 1,700 criminals from jail, many of whom went on to commit felonies. Andy Beshear stands with Joe Biden and the most extreme wing of the Democrat Party on abortion,” the Cameron campaign said.
The attorney general celebrated major legal victories that defended the unborn following the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. After the decision, Cameron defended Kentucky’s trigger law that went into effect banning abortion, leading to the closure of the state’s two abortion facilities.
Democrats across the country have celebrated victories on abortion, including a ballot measure that failed in Kentucky which would have clarified that abortion is not a right protected by the state constitution. Other red states, such as Kansas and Ohio, also rejected initiatives to further protect the unborn, and Democrats have signaled they will continue to run on the issue while painting conservatives as extreme.
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Some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have warned conservatives to be cautious on the campaign trail when discussing abortion. Trump advised Michigan Republican candidate Tudor Dixon to “talk differently about abortion” during her failed 2022 campaign for governor, and Dixon told Trump during an interview last week that he was “absolutely right” to give her the advice.
Cameron, who has been endorsed by Trump, has focused much of his campaign on the economy, rising crime rates, and stopping radical gender theory, including sex-change procedures, from being pushed on children. The attorney general has highlighted his stark contrast from Beshear on transgenderism. Beshear has maintained that he doesn’t support sex change surgeries on minors, but that he does support access to other so-called “gender-affirming” treatments, procedures that have been linked to negative health outcomes for children.
Earlier this year, the Democrat governor vetoed a bill banning all transgender procedures, including surgeries, on children, arguing it would “cause an increase in suicide among Kentucky’s youth.” Beshear’s veto was quickly overridden.
“Andy Beshear supports making it easier for minor children to get an abortion without their parents’ knowledge and vetoed a bill that would require doctors to provide life-saving care to an infant born alive after a failed abortion,” the Cameron campaign told The Daily Wire. “Daniel Cameron is the pro-life candidate in this race and will work as Governor to build a culture of life.”
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.