There are a lot of Republican candidates to consider come the primary on August 10th, and it just so happens that all of them claim to be pro-life. Is there a difference? Personally, I believe there are many large and important differences between the various candidates, but more importantly, CRTL (Colorado Right To Life) has published some unfortunate findings as regards expoused Pro-Life positions. CRTL's Blog has a lengthy explaination that is very good - but, lengthy. So, below, I have condensed the info as much as possible, and kept it to the Republican Candidates in the Senate and Governor's races. If you want to read the rest of the candidates mentioned, feel free to read the original article. I hope this is helpful for you in making your decisions for the August 10th Primaries.

About CRTL

We do not assume any candidate is pro-life unless they've responded to our candidate survey, or we have some other reason to trust their positions are sincere. CRTL does not officially endorse candidates for any office, but we will let you know which ones are NOT pro-life, and try to offer guidance on the rest. Please, NEVER assume a candidate is pro-life because of their party affiliation!

U.S. Senate Race

Republican Ken Buck is a credible candidate we consider very strongly pro-life and pro-Personhood, based on conversations with him. He is on record supporting Personhood, though we have not received his candidate questionnaire.

Republican Jane Norton has supported "abortion exceptions" in the past (i.e. for rape & incest, which is from our perspective "pro-abortion with exceptions"), and for some time refused to support Personhood. She was scheduled to meet with someone about Personhood, but the meeting hasn't happened yet despite every effort. However, she has apparently endorsed Personhood recently, along with the other Republican candidates for U.S. Senate. Questions to her campaign to confirm this went unanswered, and she has not responded to our survey, sent by certified letter, and she's had enough time to respond.

Again, we must question Jane Norton's sincerity on this issue, because she has seemed more reluctant than willing. She did participate in Gov. Owens' cutoff of Planned Parenthood from state funding, and we applaud her actions on that (as a cabinet member).

Governor's Race

Scott McInnis (R - Former Congressman) is the establishment candidate who the GOP thinks is "the man to beat Hickenlooper." He is running as a pro-life candidate, but is short on meaningful specifics. He was formerly a ranking member of the pro-abortion group Republicans for Choice, and is known to have supported some pro-abortion legislation (including taxpayer funding for abortions) and to have opposed some pro-life measures. He claims to have "changed his mind" about abortion, and has even expressed support for Personhood, but he has not responded to CRTL's survey (sent by certified letter 2 weeks ago, and also several times by e-mail), and we have real doubts about his sincerity. Don't believe his claims that he has a "pro-life voting record" -- HE DOES NOT. [...]

We were impressed when Dan Maes (R) became only the second major candidate to respond to our candidate survey. We had a question about his original survey, and in time and after some dialogue he responded with support for 7 of 7 of CRTL's central points, as explained in our candidate survey. We consider him 100% pro-life, and are happy that he is doing so well in the Governor's race -- no one gave him a chance early on, but he's turned out to be a strong and credible candidate.

[None of the emphasis above was added by me, but reflects the original article]

Thanks for your interest, and don't forget to vote on August 10th!