Georgia Democrat Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock is coming under fire from fellow black ministers in his state over his support for abortion rights, dozens of whom took him to task in a letter Friday.
“You have publicly expressed your views that abortion is an exercise of ‘human agency and freedom’ that is fully consistent with your role as a shepherd of God’s people,” the letter read, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We believe these statements represent grave errors of judgment and a lapse in pastoral responsibility, and we entreat you to reconsider them.”
Warnock is currently locked in a tight race in Georgia against incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Loeffler, like most Republicans in Georgia, has cast herself as an enemy of abortion rights and has been endorsed by The National Right to Life Committee, and other pro-life groups.
The letter, signed by more than two dozen black religious leaders in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, also praised Warnock for his ”commendable efforts to share Christ while pursuing political solutions to our most pressing problems.”
The missive was emailed and hand-delivered to his campaign offices Friday. In a statement, Warnock said his support for abortion rights remained unwavering.
“Rev. Warnock believes a patient’s room is too small a place for a woman, her doctor, and the US government and that these are deeply personal health care decisions — not political ones,” Warnock’s spokesman Michael Brewer told the paper.
The Warnock race is one of two Georgia Senate contests that will decide control of the US Senate next year and has been a source of intense campaigning for both Democrats and Republicans.
GOP efforts to get out the vote have been undermined by President Trump’s consistent and false claims of widespread voter fraud in the state during his failed 2020 presidential campaign there. Many Republicans fear the constant drumbeat from Trump will depress turnout for their candidates.