This will keep happening, but it’s essential to make a note each time, even if it means we have to write about GOP hypocrites every single day. This week’s forced-birther GOP candidate is a Michigan Supreme Court Justice who is up for reelection, backed by “pro-life” groups, and not the father of an unwanted child because he paid for an abortion back when that was legal.
Justice Brian Zahra was stopped in his tracks after his ex-wife called him out Tuesday on his rancid record of duplicity.
In September, Zahra voted to block a ballot measure known as Proposal 3, a motion that would preserve abortion rights in the state. Zahra’s ex-wife says the judge took her to get an abortion in college.
According to an exclusive interview with NBC News, Alyssa Jones says that in 1983 while she was dating Zahra, she became pregnant. Jones, who went by her maiden name of Watson at the time, says Zahra looked in the Yellow Pages and found an abortion clinic outside of Detroit, drove her to the clinic, and paid for her to have an abortion.
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NBC News reports that Zahra, 23 at the time, was a small-business owner with plans to enroll in law school. Jones says, “I’m grateful I had a choice, and I think he’s grateful he had a choice.”
Zahra declined to be interviewed by The Detroit News, but a spokesperson from his campaign sent the following statement:
“As a rule of law jurist for more than 27 years, nearly 12 years on the Michigan Supreme Court, I have never allowed my personal opinions or my personal life to cloud my interpretation of law … This is a commitment I have made to Michiganders and one I have not, and will not, break as I continue to serve our state. Because of this, I will not discuss personal matters or political points of view publicly.”
Zahra is running for reelection, and, of course, not one but two prominent anti-abortion groups are financing his campaign: Right to Life Michigan and Citizens for Traditional Values supported the justice in his two previous runs for the Supreme Court. He was appointed to several judgeships on the Wayne County Circuit Court and then the Michigan Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court with the support of Republican governors, per NBC News.
Jones says she decided to speak to NBC News after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision in this year’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, and when she learned of Zahra’s dissent on Proposal 3—for which he cited, ridiculously, “insufficient” spacing on the petition.
“As a wordsmith and a member of Michigan’s court of last resort, a court that routinely scrutinizes in great detail the words used in statutes and constitutional provisions, I find it an unremarkable proposition that spaces between words matter,” Zahra wrote. “Words separated by spaces cease being words or become new words when the spaces between them are removed.”
Jones expressed her outrage over Zahra’s hypocrisy since her abortion not only helped him pursue his career but also because his dissent could stop others from pursuing theirs.
NBC News reports that Jones’ story was confirmed by a friend she told about the abortion at the time, her current husband, and medical records.
Zahra and Jones married in 1987 and divorced in 1993.
NBC reports that two weeks after his dissent to Proposal 3, the super PAC Right to Life of Michigan Victory Fund spent nearly $10,000 to support Zahra’s run.
Zahra joins the ranks of Georgia’s GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who has not only expressed support for the state’s archaic “heartbeat” abortion law but has said he would also support a federal law banning abortion nationwide.
But, oh, wait a minute: Walker, too, paid for a woman (or two) to have abortions.
As for the Michigan abortion ban, The Detroit News reports there are currently three requests before the state’s Supreme Court.
In August, during the Michigan Democratic Party convention, Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein indicated that ultimately the final decision on abortion rights lies with the high court, and much will depend on interpretations of Proposal 3 and the lawsuits challenging current law in the state, per The Detroit News.
How should we be reading the 2022 polls, in light of shifting margins and past misses? In this episode of The Downballot, Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen joins us to explain how his firm weights polls to reflect the likely electorate; why Democratic leads in most surveys this year should be treated as smaller than they appear because undecided voters lean heavily anti-Biden; and the surprisingly potent impact abortion has had on moving the needle with voters despite our deep polarization.
