Macon Reporter

Paul Caprio, director of Family PAC Federal, is urging voters to research the credentials of the contenders in the Illinois 13th Congressional District contest.

Regan Deering is the GOP candidate for 13th Congressional District.

Nikki Budzinski, a Democrat who opposes Deering, is a supporter of federal abortion legislation that will revoke parental rights.

“Relative to those two races. We are extremely concerned about the radical positions on abortion that both of the non-incumbent challengers to those two candidates you mentioned are taking by way of background,” Caprio told the Macon Reporter. “You should know that every House Democrat, with one exception — Henry Cuellar from Texas — voted for the radical abortion rights bill."

Caprio said the Women's Health Protection Act does several things.

“No. 1, it makes illegal parental notification all over the entire United States. So any the majority of states do have state laws on parental notification or parental consent. All of those laws would be immediately knocked out. It also allows abortion until the time of birth. It's another section of the act. And thirdly, I would also point out that all of the Democrats also voted to oppose, or I should say to support taxpayer funded abortion, which means we would get rid of the Hyde Amendment in Washington. So those are the issues at play in terms of abortion for candidates running for federal offices. And by the way, the issues are actually the same for U.S. Senate candidates,” he said. “I think that these are both very strong women candidates. We're glad to see that they recruited so many talented conservative, what I would call parents-rights women. These are both women who across the board support parents rights, the rights of parents to know, for instance, what are their children learning in public schools? Issues of masking and vaccinations. Issues of private spaces for members of the different biological sexes. These are all important issues for parents who want the right to raise their children without making the final say. Not the government at any level making the final say and pretending that they're co-parenting with the real parents. So those are those are the reasons why we support those two outstanding candidates.”

Deering is an educator, small business entrepreneur and philanthropist from Decatur.

She has charged Budzinski with being "far left.”

It is no secret that Budzinski supports abortions.

“I will fight to protect the reproductive rights of women in my district and stand up against national abortion bans and other restrictive measures,” she said after Deering was endorsed by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

Caprio addressed the issue in a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

“Your Aug. 25, 2022 editorial The GOP’s Abortion Problem, is correct in stating that ‘Democrat Pat Ryan won with about 52% of the vote by making abortion rights his main issue. (In New York CD 19) Democrat turnout exceeded expectations,’” Caprio wrote. “Why did Mr. Molinaro, the GOP  candidate, lose an election that most GOP experts thought he should win?”

Caprio said the WSJ editorial of June 10 "clearly explained" abortion as a nuanced issue with most voters.

“Yet every House Democrat (except Henry Cuellar) is on the far extreme on the issue of abortion. As the WSJ points out in the June 10 editorial, the House Democrats passed the Women’s Health Protection Act that “guarantees abortion access through viability and through all nine months if a health provider deems the pregnancy a health risk. It also protects sex selective abortion and undercuts state laws that require parental notification for minors considering abortion,’” he wrote. “How far out have the Democrats gone here?”

He wrote that 55% of Americans told Gallup that abortion should generally be illegal in the second trimester.

“In the year of 'angry parents,' more than 70% of voters support parental notification, even in blue states, in poll after poll,” Caprio wrote. “Yet instead of launching a successful counterattack on Ryan on these issues, the Republican candidate followed the GOP party line.”

He said the election is about inflation, not abortion.

“My experience is that either No. 1, destruction of the opponent’s credibility or No. 2, successful counterattack (which should have been the case here) is what wins close campaigns. Neither was present in the GOP candidate’s failed campaign,” Caprio said. “As long as the House GOP gives their candidates flawed advice on the issue of abortion, the proposed GOP committee chairman should hold off on the portraits.”

The United States House approved the Women's Health Protection Act.

The bill offers a federal override that enables people or the Department of Justice to file lawsuits if access to abortion is curtailed.

The majority of state legislation on the subject, including recently enacted abortion prohibitions, are anticipated to be superseded by the measure.

"What it does primarily is it creates a right to abortion, all nine months of pregnancy [and] it would invalidate pretty much all state legislation that's been passed," Jennifer Popik, a lawyer and director of federal legislation at anti-abortion group, National Right to Life told ABC News.