Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images
- Blake Masters, an Arizona GOP candidate for Senate, is running on an anti-abortion platform.
- His campaign site says he will only vote for judges who believe Griswold v. Connecticut was wrongly decided.
- The Griswold decision overturned a state ban on birth control, protecting the right to use contraceptives.
Blake Masters, a GOP Senate candidate running on an anti-abortion platform in Arizona, is also taking aim at the case that established the right to access birth control on his campaign website.
“I am 100% pro-life. Roe v. Wade was a horrible decision. It was wrong the day it was decided in 1973, it’s wrong today, and it must be reversed. But the fight doesn’t stop there,” Master’s campaign website reads. It goes on to pledge the candidate will “vote only for federal judges who understand that Roe and Griswold and Casey were wrongly decided, and that there is no constitutional right to abortion.”
Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey established and protected the right to an abortion in 1973 and 1992, respectively. But the Griswold case, decided in 1965, overturned a statewide ban on birth control and protected citizen’s rights to privacy against state restrictions on contraceptives.
Masters identifies himself as a Catholic father of three on his campaign site. The Catholic Church has had an official ban on any “artificial” birth control methods, including condoms and diaphragms, since 1930. Since birth control pills were invented in 1960, the church has maintained its stance that the medication should only be used for non-contraceptive reasons.
“I don’t support a state law or federal law that would ban or restrict contraception — period,” Masters said in a statement emailed to Insider. “And Griswold was wrongly decided. Both are true.”
In a Twitter thread criticizing reporting that pointed out his conflicting campaign positions, Masters stated that his problem with the Griswold case was that the Supreme Court justices “wholesale made up a constitutional right to achieve a political outcome.”
The Senate hopeful boasts an endorsement by conservative billionaire Peter Thiel on his campaign site and is aiming to secure an endorsement by former President Donald Trump. Trump phoned in to support Masters during a campaign event, criticizing his opposition, but has not officially endorsed Masters.
Masters, a venture capitalist, previously served as the president of the Thiel Foundation and was chosen by Thiel in 2016 to serve on then President-elect Trump’s transition team as he took office.
Powered by WPeMatico
