Politics

‘Why do you keep asking me that?’: Cruz dodges abortion ban questions during debate

Published

2 years ago

November 11, 2024

‘Why do you keep asking me that?’: Cruz dodges abortion ban questions during debate

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.

Politics

World Cup fuels ticketing reform demands

Published

10 hours ago

June 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Demands are growing for a political reckoning over ticket scams at the World Cup — and beyond.

The National Independent Venue Association and Fan Alliance, organizations representing and advocating for entertainment venues and artists respectively, sent a joint letter to Congress on Thursday, calling on lawmakers to ban speculative and ghost tickets, cases where resellers flog tickets they don’t actually have.

The letter — addressed to Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer — includes nearly two dozen accounts of fans who say they were scammed out of thousands of dollars trying to get tickets to the World Cup, which began last week. The groups are also asking fans to share their own stories with elected officials via the Fix the Tix Fan Action Center that launched last week.

“Every one of these stories erodes the public’s faith that consumers should and will be protected from fraud,” NIVA Executive Director Stephen Parker and Fan Alliance founder Donald Cohen wrote. “We urge Congress to work with us to prevent fraud like this in the future and finally enact ticket resale consumer protections that will protect Americans and ensure affordability.”

The letter flagged fans like Dacy Gillespie, who bought World Cup tickets for her sons on Christmas, only to learn on match day — months later — that the seller couldn’t deliver them. And Skylie Shore, who Parker and Cohen said spent well over $6,000 on tickets to the Scotland-Haiti match on June 13, but was forced to wait outside the stadium because she couldn’t access them as fans marched in on gameday.

“These examples reveal a consistent pattern: consumer deception, speculative ticket sales, and broken-hearted American families at the hands of resale ticketing companies like StubHub,” Parker and Cohen wrote.

In a statement, StubHub spokesperson Jack Sterne said that the platform does not allow speculative ticket sales, and blamed FIFA for users’ difficulty in accessing their tickets.

“We understand that attending the World Cup represents a significant investment in time and money, and we take our responsibility to every fan who books through our platform seriously,” Sterne said in a statement. “Many of the issues fans are facing trace back to the event organizer’s technology infrastructure, newly announced transfer restrictions, and a new app that was launched just a month ago.”

In response, FIFA said in a statement that the organization “can guarantee the validity and delivery of tickets purchased through its official platforms” and that FIFA.com/tickets “is the official ticket sales channel” for the tournament.

NIVA and Fan Alliance are urging congressional leadership to place universal price-gouging limits on ticket resale, enact stringent fines on perpetrators and a violation-reporting mechanism for ticket scams, and require secondary ticketing platforms to produce data on ticket fulfillment and consumer complaints.

The groups are not the only ones monitoring for evidence of shady ticket practices. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway issued a consumer guidance in advance of the tournament, urging match-goers to beware of fraud and promising to hold offenders accountable. And the FBI in May put out a public service announcement, warning fans against purchasing tickets on copycat websites modeled on FIFA’s.

“With the World Cup coming to Kansas City, excitement is high and, unfortunately, so is the potential for fraud,” Hanaway said in her statement. “Missourians should be able to enjoy this once-in-a-generation event without fear of being deceived. My office will hold accountable anyone who seeks to exploit our families, and we stand ready to assist anyone who encounters suspicious activity.”