For Immediate Release
Monday, August 29, 2022
Contact: Hannah Goss, hgoss@azdem.org
POLITIFACT: “Blake Masters ‘Wants to Pass a National Ban on Abortion.’”
PHOENIX — On Friday afternoon, Politifact published a fact check exposing Blake Masters’ desperate attempts to lie about his plan to ban abortion nationwide.
Last week, Masters made local and national headlines for working to hide his unpopular abortion position — even going as far as changing his website to cover up his plans — but Arizonans, like Politifact, know the truth: “Blake Masters still supports a national abortion ban.”
Read the full fact check here, or see below for key excerpts:
- Masters’ latest comments and revised campaign website still call for a federal abortion law.
- “Personhood generally is about abortion bans. It’s been about abortion bans for the pro-life movement since the 1960s,” said Mary Ziegler, a professor, abortion historian and author of an upcoming book on personhood. “If you say you support personhood, you’re saying you support a nationwide ban. That’s the accepted meaning within the movement and within the culture.”
- Masters repeatedly stated support for a federal personhood law before his primary victory Aug. 3.
- In an interview in December 2021, Masters was asked whether he would support a national law banning abortion. He said: “Yeah, I mean life is always worth protecting. … Certainly I’m running for U.S. Senate, at the federal level, I think Roe v. Wade should be overturned, and I do think we need a personhood amendment that recognizes (unintelligible) it’s a baby even before it’s born.”
- At a February 2022 campaign event, Masters called for a federal personhood amendment and said Congress would determine when during pregnancy it would apply. “The federal government needs to step in and say, ‘We recognize life here and no state can permit abortions.’ That’s what I think offense on pro-life looks like,” he said, in comments that were also reported by The Arizona Republic.
- In a February 2022 interview, Masters indicated support for a personhood law that would ban abortion relatively early in pregnancy.
- Masters said at a May campaign event that the 14th Amendment “says you have the right to life, liberty and property,” the Huffington Post reported. “You can’t deprive someone with that without due process. Hard to imagine a bigger deprivation of due process than killing a small child before they have a chance to take their first breath. So, I think you do need a federal personhood law.”
- On his campaign website, Masters previously said he would “support a federal personhood law, ideally a constitutional amendment, that recognizes that unborn babies are human beings that may not be killed.
- Our ruling: Kelly said Masters “wants to pass a national ban on abortion.” Masters repeatedly backed a federal personhood law, which is often viewed as a near or total ban on abortion, during his GOP primary… Masters softened his position after winning the Republican nomination, though he still supports a federal ban… We rate it Mostly True.
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