‘I would rather be right and lose an election’

Rubio stands firm on abortion ban as Democrats attack

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio says he’d rather lose his job in Washington than compromise his strong anti-abortion views, signing onto a politically risky 15-week nationwide ban just weeks before the midterm elections.

His Democratic opponent U.S. Rep. Val Demings and her allies are putting that to the test in the sprint to Election Day on Nov. 8.

They are blitzing the airwaves with ads slamming Rubio’s position that abortion should be prohibited even in cases of rape and incest, tapping into their base’s outrage over the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and seeking to brand Rubio an abortion extremist.

“The Republicans have done an extreme overreach,” said Florida Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book, a Demings ally. “NPAs, Democrats and even some Republicans think this is too extreme to ban abortion without exceptions for rape, incest and human trafficking. It is beyond the pale for many Floridians.”

Nationwide, Democrats are investing more than $124 million this year in television advertising focused on abortion, more than twice the money invested on any other issue, according to an Associated Press analysis.

Rubio isn’t backing down from the abortion fight. In interviews, Rubio said he views abortion as a “moral issue about life.”

“I would rather be right and lose an election than wrong and win one,” he said at a recent campaign event with religious leaders covered by Local News 10 Miami, echoing a similar statement he made in 2016 when he ran for president.

Rubio is the only GOP senator up for reelection this year who co-sponsored the 15-week abortion ban introduced by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, making Florida’s Senate race a flashpoint in the national debate over the issue.

In interviews, Rubio has said he personally supports a ban with no exceptions for rape and incest that would “protect innocent life from the moment of conception to the moment of birth.”

Despite his personal views, he said he would support legislation with exceptions because it would reduce the number of

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