CV NEWS FEED // CatholicVote is retracting its support for a Republican congresswoman who blocked a bill to prohibit federal taxpayer funding of abortion – and is pledging to support any credible candidate who runs against her.

Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a freshman from Oregon’s 5th District, announced today that she would oppose the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.

In her 2022 campaign, Chavez-DeRemer pledged to vote pro-life in Congress.

“Oregon has passed extreme laws that allow abortion on demand and taxpayer-funded abortions. A vast majority of Americans want restrictions on abortion and I would be in favor of passing legislation like the heartbeat bill,” she wrote in a tweet last May.

But Friday, Chavez-DeRemer issued a statement saying,

I will not support federal action on limiting taxpayer funding for abortion and will continue pushing back against efforts to bring a proposal to the House floor. The Dobbs decision made clear that it’s an issue that should be decided at the state level, and Oregonians recently rejected efforts to limit taxpayer-funded abortion overwhelmingly.

Her statement appears to be in reference to a 2018 ballot initiative in Oregon which would have prohibited taxpayer funding of abortion. It failed in a blue-wave year in the famously liberal state.

“Chavez-DeRemer’s justification makes no sense,” said CatholicVote Political Director Josh Mercer. “She says she can’t vote for the bill because of how her blue state voted five years ago, but she wasn’t elected statewide. She was elected in a swing district by voters who knew she opposed taxpayer funding for abortion. If the 5th District wanted a pro-abortion extremist, they would have elected her opponent.”

Tom McClusky, CatholicVote’s government affairs director in DC, said Chavez-DeRemer’s move is the latest in a long line of betrayals by pro-life members of Congress – who always meet with defeat afterward.

“Even pro-life Democrats who sold out their principles to vote for Obamacare were wiped out within a few years,” McClusky said. “It never works for them because neither side can trust them.”

CatholicVote had endorsed Chavez-DeRemer’s candidacy in 2022, as had other pro-life groups like the Susan B. Anthony List. But CatholicVote is now pledging to oppose her in 2024.

“She sold us out,” said Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote. “I am pledging to make the maximum donation from our PAC to any credible pro-life candidate who steps forward to challenge her in the Republican primary in 2024.”

Burch issued a warning to any Republican who is thinking of following Chavez-DeRemer’s lead.

“Any Republican who supports taxpayers paying for abortion in the hopes of gaining support from moderates does so at his or her peril,” Burch said. “Nobody likes a sellout.”

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