Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers is navigating the thorny politics of abortion in the final days of his campaign, touting his longtime “pro-life” record to Christian radio listeners last week, before taking to social media to say he would respect Michigan’s right to an abortion under state law.
In an interview Thursday on “The Bob Dutko Show,” a conservative Christian radio program out of metro Detroit, Rogers was asked whether evangelical voters could trust him not to side with Democrats on social issues, including abortion.
“You don’t even have to think about it twice,” Rogers said. “I mean, I feel I’ve been very open about all of those issues, including for the time I was in Congress having a 100% pro-life rating.”
The interview prompted criticism from Democrats and a series of responses from Rogers claiming he opposed a national abortion ban and pledged to respect Michigan’s constitutional protections for abortion rights.
“This decision is one of the hardest decisions a woman will make in her entire life and it should be handled with her family and her doctor. Period,” Rogers said Saturday in a video posted on his X account featuring him sitting next to his wife.
“I am against a national abortion ban. Spreading lies about my record and fear mongering to scare women in Michigan is WRONG, and you know it,” he added in another tweet Saturday.
Abortion is currently legal with no restrictions in Michigan. Parental permission is required for those younger than 18.
Rogers’ voting scorecards, archived in his congressional papers at Oakland University, show he received 100% ratings from the National Right to Life Committee while earning zero-percent ratings from abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, now known as Reproductive Freedom for All. Rogers also previously touted that record in campaign materials as late as 2011, according to the archive and promoted endorsements from anti-abortion groups on his House campaign website.
The abortion fight comes as Rogers received an extraordinary eleventh-hour boost Sunday from Rep. Haley Stevens, Abdul El-Sayed’s former Democratic primary rival, who endorsed the Republican just two days before Election Day.
In last week’s interview, Rogers described his upbringing in a conservative Christian family, adding, “This is the only way that I know how to be when I go back to the United States Senate.”
The comments drew criticism from Michigan Democrats, who argued Rogers was affirming his support for a national abortion ban days before Tuesday’s election against El-Sayed – though Rogers endorsed no such ban in the interview and pushed back against that repeatedly on social media Saturday.
Rogers has a long record opposing abortion rights, which includes supporting federal legislation restricting the procedure and previously saying abortion should be legal only to save the life of the mother.
In a 2010 interview uncovered by CNN’s KFile during his 2024 Senate run, Rogers said, “I believe abortions should be legal only to prevent the death of the mother.”
During his 14 years in Congress, he repeatedly voted for a federal ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
As candidate for US Senate, Rogers has pledged not to support federal laws limiting abortion if they contradict Michigan’s law.