Democrats are attacking Gabe Evans on abortion and same-sex marriage. Here’s what he says about those topics.

The television air waves in the Denver area are starting to be dominated by ads in the highly competitive race in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, where Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans is seeking to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo.

The outcome of the contest in the district that spans Denver’s northeastern suburbs along U.S. 85 into Greeley could determine which party controls Congress next year. The ads are part of millions of dollars in expected spending in the district as the Nov. 5 election nears.

Many of the ads being run by Caraveo and her Democratic allies include claims about Evans’ positions on abortion and same-sex marriage. Here’s how those claims compare with Evans’ record and what he says now about his positions on those topics.

Same-sex marriage

Caraveo is running a TV ad in which the narrator, Chris, an Iraq war veteran who lives in Adams County, claims that Evans “only cares about … invalidating gay marriages.” The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic campaign arm for the U.S. House, is running annother ad in which the unnamed narrator claims that “Evans supports banning same-sex marriage.”

Those claims are based in large part on a letter to the editor Evans wrote in 2004, when he was 17 years old, in which he called same-sex marriage a “bad idea” that will have a “terrible effect … on our society.” He wrote that allowing gay marriage would open the door to polygamy, parents being able to marry their children, and siblings being able to marry each other, as well as incest, pederasty and bestiality.

“If gay marriages are allowed, the institution of marriage will have been redefined to include all of the perverted and immoral practices mentioned above,” Evans wrote. 

Evans, in an interview with The Colorado Sun, said his views have changed over the past 20 years and that he neither wants to ban gay marriage nor invalidate existing same-sex marriages. He said he plans to vote “yes” on a November ballot measure that would strip a prohibition on same-sex marriage from the Colorado Constitution and supports the Respect for Marriage Act passed in 2022, which requires the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriage.

He was marked “excused” from a House floor vote when the legislature referred the same-sex marriage amendment to the ballot earlier this year and did not vote on the authorizing legislation.

“I was a 17-year-old kid,” Evans said of when he wrote the letter. “I’d held my driver’s license for maybe a year at that point. I wasn’t even old enough to vote. I’d never even had a girlfriend at that point in my life. Since then, I’ve done a lot of things. I’ve matured a lot.”

Evans, who was elected as a state representative in 2022, said his views on homosexuality and same-sex marriage changed as he served alongside LGBTQ soliders in the Army and officers when he was a policeman. 

“There’s a lot of things that 38-year-old Gabe disagrees with 17-year-old Gabe about,” he said. 

Evans’ campaign also points out that in 2004, opposition to same-sex marriage was more widespread, including among leading Democrats, like Barack Obama.

Caraveo, a former state lawmaker herself, supports same-sex marriage. 

Abortion

The narrator in Caraveo’s ad also claims that Evans “only cares about … banning abortion,” while the narrator in the DCCC ad says Evans “supports ending abortion nationwide.”

Meanwhile, another ad, paid for by the Democratic House Majority PAC, features a Colorado obstetrician gynecologist saying that Evans “supports banning abortion — even here in Colorado, and even in cases of rape or incest.”

The House Majority PAC ad cites a candidate survey Evans filled out as part of his 2022 statehouse campaign. In that survey, which has since been removed from the internet, Evans checked a box saying he supports “prohibiting abortion except when necessary to save the mother’s life.” There was no mention in the survey of whether abortion should be banned in cases of rape or incest, and the survey only allowed respondents to check “support,” “oppose” or “no response” to the question.

Evans says he thinks abortions should be allowed in cases of rape and incest, and when a mother’s life is at risk. 

“That was a check-the-box survey with one pro-life option and one pro-choice option,” he told The Sun. “I’m pro-life, so I checked the pro-life option knowing that a check-the-box survey is never going to fully encompass the nuances and the complexities of this conversation.”

In another 2022 candidate survey, when asked “under what circumstances should abortion be allowed,” Evans said that “life begins at conception” and “if the circumstances wouldn’t warrant killing a born person, the unborn also should not be killed.” Notably, he did not call for exceptions for rape or incest, or when a mother’s life is at risk in the response.

Evans told The Sun he didn’t mean to suggest that he didn’t believe in abortion exceptions in cases of rape and incest or when a mother’s life is at risk.

“I was trying to capture that this is an incredibly complex, incredibly nuanced realm,” he said.

Evans has consistently said he would not support a federal abortion ban, but on the state level, he has not said when in a pregnancy he thinks abortion should be outlawed. He told The Sun he hasn’t seen and doesn’t know of a policy that he feels adequately protects life but also provides flexibility in situations where there is a major complication in a pregnancy.

“When folks say ‘he wants to outlaw all abortion’ — I had multiple opportunities to sign onto bills or support bills that would have done that. I didn’t sign on to those things because I think they did not provide the necessary flexibility,” he said.

Evans said his views are informed by his experiences raising a family. His wife has had eight miscarriages, and their second child was born at 36 weeks after doctors spotted problems at 20 weeks of pregnancy that they thought were potentially incompatible with life.

“Maternal fetal health doesn’t neatly fit into any of these political abortion talking points,” he said.

Caraveo, meanwhile, is a cosponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would establish a federal statutory right to abortion access nationwide. It would offer more protection for abortion access than some states did under Roe v. Wade, prohibiting waiting periods and mandatory ultrasounds, and it would give people the legal right to travel out of state to get an abortion. 

Roe v. Wade was the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision protecting the right to an abortion without excessive government restriction. It was overturned in 2022.

“As a doctor, I have stood beside young women facing the solemn decision of whether to have an abortion. Having stood in those rooms, I know it’s a decision that is never made lightly. It’s one of the biggest, most difficult, life-changing decisions a woman can make, which is why I firmly believe it’s a decision that must remain in the exam room,” Caraveo, a pediatrician who is a member of the congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, said in a statement. 

As a state representative, Caraveo also voted for a bill that was passed and signed into law that preserved unfettered abortion access in Colorado. Abortion rights groups are asking voters in November to make that change in the state constitution, too, making it harder to reverse.

Evans said he’s unlikely to support the measure, Amendment 79, because it would allow for taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions. He says that should only be allowed in cases of rape and incest or when a mother’s life is at risk.