Ted Cruz Dodges Abortion Question In Debate With Colin Allred | EUROtoday

DALLAS ― Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) repeatedly prevented giving a direct reply to questions on his place on abortion rights throughout a debate with Rep. Colin Allred, the Democrat hoping to spoil his bid for a 3rd time period.

Debate moderator Gromer Jeffers requested Cruz whether or not he would assist exceptions to abortion bans for instances for rape and incest.

“Well, listen, abortion is an issue that many Texans, many Americans, care deeply about, and it’s an issue that people of good faith can disagree,” Cruz stated, including that it’s acceptable for states to set their very own legal guidelines.

“You did not directly answer the question,” Jeffers, a Dallas Morning News political reporter, stated earlier than asking once more, prompting one other non-answer from Cruz.

“Why is this an issue you won’t address, about saying whether you support or oppose exceptions for rape and incest?” Jeffers requested.

“Why do you keep asking me that?” Cruz stated, earlier than shortly stating that Allred prevented specifying, in response to statements from Cruz himself, whether or not he supported permitting minors to get abortions with out parental notification.

It was essentially the most dramatic second of Tuesday night time’s debate, throughout which Cruz and Allred each caught to the scripts they’ve developed over the previous a number of months of campaigning, with Allred hitting Cruz for his opposition to abortion rights in addition to his notorious journey to Cancun throughout a lethal winter storm, and Cruz hammering Allred for supposedly supporting males competing in girls’s sports activities.

“He has come out for men playing in women’s sports, for boys playing in girls’ sports,” Cruz stated, citing, amongst different issues, Allred’s vote in opposition to a House invoice geared toward reducing federal funding for schools that permit athletes whose assigned intercourse at start was male to compete in girls’s sports activities.

Most polls present Cruz sustaining a slim lead, although the race is remarkably shut contemplating Donald Trump received the state in 2020 by greater than 8 share factors. Both lawmakers have sought to painting themselves as moderates, and Allred has closely emphasised his background as a former NFL linebacker.

Without going into element about his coverage place, Allred denied that he helps boys collaborating in ladies’ sports activities, and he sought to redirect Cruz’s anti-transgender assaults to return to the problem of abortion.

“You don’t have to be a former NFL linebacker to recognize a Hail Mary when you see one,” Allred stated. “What he wants you thinking about is kids in bathrooms so you’re not thinking about women in hospitals, because it’s indefensible, indefensible that we have Texas women being turned away from hospitals, bleeding out in their cars and later being found by their husbands.”

Cruz criticized Allred for having beforehand opposed the idea of a wall alongside the southern U.S. border and stated he’s primarily the identical as Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

“He calls the border wall ‘that racist border wall,’ and he has pledged to tear down that racist border wall personally,” Cruz stated. “Colin Allred is Kamala Harris.”

Allred stated he does now assist a bodily barrier as a part of broader immigration reforms. He faulted Cruz for opposing a bipartisan invoice that will have funded wall building and tightened eligibility for asylum claims.

“So time and again, Sen. Cruz treats our border communities like he is going on some kind of safari,” Allred stated. “He comes down, he puts on his outdoor clothes, he goes back to Washington and does nothing to help.”

Ahead of the controversy on Tuesday, the Allred marketing campaign hosted a information convention with a number of Texas girls who had struggled to navigate the state’s abortion ban. Kate Cox, a mom of two who has sued the state over the restrictions, described her expertise touring out of state to get an abortion after being pregnant problems imperiled her well being.

“We learned our baby would never survive, and the risks to my health and a future pregnancy were growing, and the Texas abortion ban made a terribly difficult decision impossible to make in my home state,” Cox stated.

“Ted Cruz says these abortion bans are reasonable,” Cox stated. “I have personally seen the devastation.”