DCCC - Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

04/16/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/16/2024 10:45

Bombshell New Video of Yvette Herrell: “I Wish We Could Have Eliminated All Abortion”

In new reporting from HuffPost, Yvette Herrell is caught on camera speaking candidly about her anti-abortion agenda: "I wish we could have eliminated all abortion in the state."

This new video mirrors Herrell's long-standing anti-abortion record. Herrell co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act which would ban abortion nationwide with no exceptions and could ban access to IVF.

Yet for her 2024 congressional campaign, Herrell intentionally scrubbed all mentions of her anti-abortion record from her campaign website. The blatantly calculated ploy didn't go unnoticed by both national and local press who then called her out for her deception.

DCCC Spokesperson Lauryn Fanguen:
"New Mexico voters can now hear about Yvette Herrell's anti-abortion agenda directly from the candidate herself. There's no question that Herrell is an anti-abortion extremist who wants to ban abortion and take away the rights of women in New Mexico. Herrell is in for a rude awakening if she thinks voters will empower her to enact her dangerous and unpopular agenda."

  • In a newly discovered video, former Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.) said in 2020 that she wished her state had banned abortion entirely ― a sharp contrast to her efforts to appear more measured on abortion issues ahead of the November election, when she is hoping to regain her old seat in Congress.

  • "I wish we could have eliminated all abortion in the state," Herrell said during a virtual candidate forum hosted that year by her state's Republican Party of Valencia County. "I wish we could have gotten even that to go through. But we couldn't."

  • Moments earlier in the forum, Herrell was asked a strange question about whether she would plead guilty to being pro-life, and if yes, what evidence could be used to convict her.

  • "I love these questions you guys came up with, but absolutely I would plead guilty, and the evidence would be a solid 100% pro-life voting record," she replied.

  • Herrell's wish to end all abortions in her state shouldn't be surprising: She has routinely touted her anti-abortion views on social media and celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade.

  • She also co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act in 2021, which sought to redefine "human being" to include "all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being." It made no exceptions for in vitro fertilization (IVF).

  • But Herrell, like so many others in her party, is now scrambling to bury a longstanding anti-abortion record. In the nearly two years since Roe v. Wade fell, abortion rights supporters have been channeling their outrage at the ballot box, handing Democrats wins again and again in elections at all levels and prompting Republicans to downplay long-held positions.

  • Herrell has cut all references to abortion from her website and campaign materials. Her campaign has emphasized that she believes abortion rights decisions should be left to the states, a stance also recently adopted by former President Donald Trump.

  • A Herrell campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment as to whether she still wishes that New Mexico had banned all abortion.