Arizona gubernatorial candidate Fred DuVal is coming under fire for saying he doesn’t think a 14-year-old should get parental consent before having an abortion. Here’s what he said during an interview:
Host: “Notarized parental consent? Parental notification?”
DuVal: “[sigh] Uh, consent, no. Because I believe that then gives the choice of reproductive freedom to the parents and not to the expectant mother and I believe the expectant mother has that…”
Host: “And she’s 14…”
DuVal: “Yeah.”
Responding to the comments, Gail Gitcho, communications director for the Republican Governor’s Association, said she found DuVal’s remarks off-putting.
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“It is both disturbing and troubling that Fred DuVal, as a father, would say that parents have no right to consent to what their children decide to do with their bodies,” Gitcho said. “To actually say, ‘yeah,’ a 14-year-old girl should be able to get an abortion without parental consent is so far out of the mainstream, it is shocking. Years of polling demonstrate that Americans – Republican, Democrat and in-between – believe parents have a right to know and to consent to what their adolescent children are doing, specifically when it comes to this very serious issue. DuVal is too extreme for Arizona.”
DuVal faces pro-life Republican Doug Ducey in the contest. Ducey had an 11 percentage point lead in the last poll.
