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This week, Lori Chavez-DeRemer voted to elect far-right extremist Rep. Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House, known best for pioneering the push for a nationwide total abortion ban, leading the effort to slash Social Security and Medicare as chair of the Republican Study Committee, and acting as “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections.”
Chavez-DeRemer, who has repeatedly attempted to hide her extremist beliefs on abortion rights throughout her short tenure in Congress, just helped elevate one of the most extreme fringes of her party.
In case you missed it:
Oregon Capital Chronicle: Democrats condemn Chavez-DeRemer’s vote for House Speaker Mike Johnson
Julia Shumway | October 26, 2023
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Oregon’s Lori Chavez-DeRemer joined all Republicans in voting for Louisiana’s Mike Johnson, a staunch opponent of abortion rights who played a key role in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
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Democrats have already seized on Chavez-DeRemer’s support for Johnson as she fights to keep her seat in the competitive 5th Congressional District. Oregon voters overwhelmingly support abortion rights, and local and national Democratic groups signaled that Chavez-DeRemer’s ties to a conservative Christian who has backed a nationwide abortion ban will become a key issue in the campaign.
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“Mike Johnson is Jim Jordan with a sports coat – possibly worse – and he has a new best friend in Oregon: Lori Chavez-DeRemer,” said Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Chavez-DeRemer has enabled MAGA extremism every step of the way, and we’ll make sure that voters know that she once again put the far-right before Oregon workers and families.”
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Abortion became a major factor in Oregon’s 2022 election after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the national right to an abortion. A July 2022 poll conducted by the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center found that 40% of Oregonians surveyed said the decision made them more likely to vote in November, and 72% of those surveyed said abortion should be legal in most or all cases.
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The number of Democrats who said abortion was the most important factor in their vote for governor increased from 1% in January 2022 to 16% in August 2022, according to polling from DHM Research. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the 5th district, which runs from Bend to Portland.
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Chavez-DeRemer declined an interview Wednesday or Thursday. A spokesman said by email that Chavez-DeRemer didn’t necessarily believe Johnson was the best choice, but that it was clear late Tuesday he would garner enough support from Republicans to be the next speaker…
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Since her election, Chavez-DeRemer has insisted that she will not support any legislation that would “fundamentally change” access to abortion nationwide. However, she voted in July to block the Department of Defense from reimbursing travel expenses for service members and their dependents who travel to obtain abortions or other reproductive health care if such care isn’t available where they’re stationed.
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During her 2022 campaign for Congress and her 2016 and 2018 campaigns for state House, Chavez-DeRemer made conflicting statements about abortion rights. In 2016, for instance, the Oregonian editorial board described her as “pro-choice” in its endorsement, while she told the conservative Oregon Family Council that she opposed abortion except in cases of rape, incest or where continuing a pregnancy would endanger the woman’s life.
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Last year, she celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the national right to an abortion and promised Oregon Republicans who attended the annual Dorchester conference in Welches that she would always vote against abortion, saying that she was not for taxpayer-funded abortion and never would be.
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New House Speaker Johnson, however, is among the most vocal opponents of abortion in the U.S. House. He called for punishing doctors who perform abortions with 10 years of “hard labor” in prison. In Congress, he has sponsored or co-sponsored bills to ban abortions nationwide at six weeks or 15 weeks, prohibit federal funding for any clinics that perform abortions and declare that life begins at fertilization.
- He also co-sponsored a bill condemned by doctors that would require health care practitioners to immediately admit to a hospital any fetus that survives an abortion. Chavez-DeRemer and all other House Republicans voted for that measure, which medical professionals say would block doctors from providing compassionate, evidence-based care.
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