Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas struggled to respond to questions about abortion ban exceptions on the debate stage Tuesday night and instead tried to paint his Democratic opponent, Rep. Colin Allredas extreme on abortion.

Pressed multiple times on whether he supports or opposes exceptions for abortion bans in the case of rape or incest, Cruz took issue with the moderators’ line of questioning.

“Why do you keep asking me that?” the Republican asked, dodging the question for the third time.

“It’s not pro-life to deny women care so long that they can’t have children anymore,” Allred said.

Cruz, facing what may be his toughest re-election fight yetrepeatedly tried to turn attention to Allred on the subject of parental consent for minors seeking the procedure and accused his opponent of wanting to legalize “late-term abortion.” (Such abortions — those that occur at or after 21 weeks in pregnancy — account for less than 1% of all abortionsand they are often only carried out in extreme medical situations such as a severe fetal anomaly or to save the pregnant person’s life.)

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Texas enacted a near-total ban on abortion except to save the life of the mother. But those exceptions are allowed in exceedingly rare cases, and many patients have been denied abortions even when life-threatening issues arose during their pregnancies. The Texas Medical Board later issued new guidance to clarify those exceptions after Kate Coxwhose fetus had a fatal diagnosis, was forced to travel out of state to terminate her pregnancy. Texas had the most patients travel across state lines for the procedure in 2023, with 35,500 patients traveling last year, compared with roughly 2,400 in 2019, according to The New York Times.

Cruz is a staunch anti-abortion zealot who has long pushed for restrictions on abortion access; in 2022, when Roe fell, he called it “nothing short of a massive victory for life.” But with abortion set to be one of the major issues this election, Cruz has gone somewhat muted on his fierce opposition to abortion rights, while Allred has made restoring those rights central to his campaign.

In the debate Tuesday, Allred said Cruz was trying to cast himself as moderate despite his record. The Democrat also fiercely rebutted Cruz’s claim that the incumbent is “pro-life.”

“It’s not pro-life to deny women care so long that they can’t have children anymore. It’s not pro-life to force a victim of rape to carry their rapist’s baby,” Allred said. “So to every Texas woman at home and every Texas family that’s watching this, understand that when Ted Cruz says he’s pro-life, he doesn’t mean yours.”

Clarissa-Jan Lim

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.