John James skips over his anti-abortion record at Republican National Convention

Ahead of Election Day, Michigan Republicans are keeping quiet about their longstanding efforts to ban reproductive healthcare. 

MILWAUKEE—US Rep. John James (R-Michigan) spoke for about five minutes during the first day of the Republican National Convention on Monday, where ex-President Donald Trump accepted his party’s nomination and picked a right-wing extremist to run as his vice president.

James—who is running for re-election this year to represent Michigan’s 10th District—kicked off his short speech with a tale from his childhood, where he said he grew up living the “American Dream story.” He also told the crowd about how he and the former president have now both survived gunfire and would “keep on fighting for America until the good lord takes us home.” 

Dozens of Republicans also spoke on Monday night to outline their party’s support for Trump, as well as their goals and priorities ahead of the upcoming election. Like others, James referred to immigrants as “illegals” and attacked transgender women who play in women’s sports.

“If you don’t vote for Donald Trump, you ain’t Black,” James also told the crowd. 

Notably absent from James’ remarks: His years-long quest to ban abortion.

James on the Record

James, who once vowed to “not stop fighting until we end abortion,” did not mention reproductive rights one time during his speech on Monday night at the RNC. His latest political strategy appears to be focused on sidestepping the issue (and his voting record) altogether.

But James already made his views clear when he was running for US Senate back in 2018:

“I am 100% #ProLife because I believe life begins at conception and ends at a natural death. We will not stop fighting until we end abortion, for it is our sacred duty to protect the most vulnerable among us; the unborn,” James posted to his Twitter account in January 2018. 

James has also said that he opposes access to abortion in cases of rape and incest, according to reports from MLive. At a campaign event in 2018, he even compared abortion to “genocide.”

Anti-abortion groups like Right to Life of Michigan, in turn, have endorsed and spent tens of thousands of dollars to support James’ failed congressional campaigns in both 2018 and 2020.

While attempting to soften his stance on the issue last year, James told reporters at the Detroit News that he supports abortion ban exceptions in cases of rape or incest. In another interview, he also suggested that he would no longer support a bill that would ban abortion nationwide.

“The people of Michigan have spoken and I … I said from the very, very beginning that we need to have compassion for women, and we need to listen to women, and women have made their voice heard loud and clear,” James said last year in an interview with WDIV. “Now that people in Michigan have made their decision, it is my job as the representative to represent my district.”

Still, after Proposal 3 passed to cement access to abortion into the state Constitution, James still continued to uphold his so-called “sacred duty” to rip away reproductive rights for women. 

Last year, he voted against congressional efforts to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which had sought to codify abortion access into federal law. While in Congress, James has also reportedly voted in favor of several other anti-abortion bills that have come to the House floor.

That includes a vote in support of legislation that would’ve restricted pharmacies from dispensing mifepristone, the nation’s most commonly prescribed form of medication abortion.

Last year, James also joined every Michigan Republican in the US House of Representatives to elect US Rep. Mike Johnson as the Speaker of the House, elevating a politician with an extreme, anti-abortion, and anti-LGBTQ track record to the most powerful position in the House. 

James’ pivot mirrors his party’s approach to abortion

With polls showing access to reproductive healthcare to be wildly popular among voters this year, Republican politicians have tried to soften their hardline stances against abortion.

In 2016, the official GOP platform called for Congress to pass legislation to ban abortion, as well as prohibit embryonic stem cell research and block federal funding for reproductive health care.

But this year’s platform, which was released this month ahead of the RNC, no longer calls for any federal limits on abortion, and is much shorter and more limited on specific requests related to abortion—specifically calling on states, rather than Congress, to weigh in on the issue.

That change doesn’t mean federal limits are off the table, however. The Trump-aligned Project 2025  features a detailed blueprint for how a conservative government, under Trump, could work to criminalize abortion and ban birth control medication nationwide. 

The latest platform has also been criticized for being even more radical than years past—specifically because it alludes to “fetal personhood,” a concept which has become popular in Republican-led states (like Alabama) as a tool to restrict access to reproductive health care and potentially even in in vitro fertilization (IVF).

But the shifting stance appears to rely on a new sort of political strategy among Republicans: Hoping that voters simply forget about how Republican lawmakers—like James—have spent years in Congress railing against reproductive rights and lobbying for a nationwide abortion ban. 

What’s next?

This year, James is asking more than 600,000 Michiganders to send him back to Congress.

In August, he will slide unopposed into the Republican nomination. And in November, voters living across Oakland and Macomb counties will decide whether James gets to continue representing them in Congress or whether he should be replaced by a Democratic candidate. 

The winner of the election could play a key role in determining which political party is able to take control of the US House next year, where Republicans currently have the majority. 

But with less than four months until Election Day, Michiganders won’t find much information about James’ political agenda on his campaign website. As of this week, it didn’t feature a single detail about any of his legislative priorities beyond a short video, a one-liner about how he’s “fighting for the American dream,” and several opportunities to donate to his campaign.

And while a review of a candidates’ voting record would typically provide at least some insight into their views on key issues, James doesn’t have much of a record to bring to the table. 

Of the 35 bills sponsored by James to date, none of them have been signed into law, and only one—dealing with safety standards at the Soo Locks—has managed to pass the US House.

READ MORE: 7 things to know about Republican US Rep. John James

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