(Radio Iowa) – First district Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Davenport says Democrats making abortion a key issue in their campaigns have nothing else to run on. “They have high gas prices, high food prices, high interest rates so young people can’t buy a house and don’t think they can get ahead in the United States,” Miller-Meeks said yesterday during a campaign stop in Mount Pleasant. “They have open borders with record amounts of fentanyl coming across the border.”

Christina Bohannan, the Democrat running against Miller-Meeks, has just released a campaign ad accusing Miller-Meeks of “pushing to ban all abortions nationwide with no exceptions for rape or incest.” On the campaign trail, Bohannan cites Miller-Meeks’ previous support of a constitutional amendment that says life begins “at fertilization,” which would ban all abortions. Miller-Meeks did not sign on as a co-sponsor of the proposal during the current two-year session of congress. “I am pro-life with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother,” Miller-Meeks said. “I’ve been very consistent on that.”

Last year, Miller-Meeks voted to set five-year-old prison sentences for health care providers who do not try to save the life of a baby that’s born alive during an attempted abortion. The bill was opposed by Democrats. “That is an extreme position such as North Korea and China have,” Miller-Meeks said. “That is not in keeping with the majority of Americans and the majority of Iowans.”

A 2003 federal law bans so-called “partial birth” abortions and it is considered murder to kill a baby that is born alive.