Sen. Roger Marshall Appears at Wichita, Kansas, Event Where Speakers Liken Abortion to Child Sacrifice and Auschwitz

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, the Republican incumbent and a former OB-GYN, is campaigning for reelection against Democrat Adam Hamilton, a moderate megachurch pastor. Polls suggest Marshall could lose his seat. In his closing pitch to voters, Marshall has embraced support from anti-abortion activists, including the leader of an organization that has promoted violence against abortion providers and conservative pastors who have compared abortion to human sacrifice.

At a Sunday faith-based public gathering in Wichita, Marshall spoke alongside Troy Newman, head of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, and local evangelical pastors Kyle Lammott and Con Howerton. Lammott called on attendees to pray for “wives who are submissive” and said Kansas’ abortion protections have left the state “soaked with the blood of the innocent.” Howerton described “babies, millions of them being sent to Molech,” a Biblical reference to child sacrifice, and criticized state laws for making Kansas “a destination state for abortion.” Another speaker compared aborted fetuses to people killed at Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp where more than 1 million Jews and others were murdered during World War II.

Marshall did not use such extreme language. Other speakers referenced him as a champion of the anti-abortion movement and repeatedly criticized Hamilton. Marshall has not distanced himself from their remarks. In his own remarks, he said, “I don’t know what I would put ahead of the sanctity of life,” and added that “the people of Kansas have told me that the most important thing for them is to protect our traditional Kansas values.” Marshall has spent little time discussing abortion during his reelection bid.

Newman moved Operation Rescue to Wichita in 2002 to focus on protests outside the clinic of Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider who was murdered in 2009. Operation Rescue at the time denounced Scott Roeder, the man who shot Tiller. Roeder said he had met with Newman and owned an autographed copy of Newman’s book.

Hamilton has focused his campaign on issues such as diesel prices and agricultural policy. Recently, his campaign has emphasized Marshall’s history of suing former patients over medical debt, including some who were jailed. Marshall, who has been endorsed by the anti-abortion group Kansas for Life, has instead argued that his opponent is too liberal for a conservative state like Kansas. Marshall’s presence at the event, which also featured remarks from Ty Masterson, the state’s Republican candidate for governor, has not been widely reported. Marshall’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment (Proverbs 18:17).

Voters in Kansas have repeatedly backed abortion rights. In August, Kansans rejected a ballot measure that would have changed how the state selects its Supreme Court, a move widely seen as a first step toward undercutting the state’s constitutional abortion protection. Since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, Kansas has seen a large influx of out-of-state abortion patients, mostly from Texas and Oklahoma, which both have strict bans. An October poll from The New York Times and Siena University found that only 3 percent of likely Kansas voters say abortion is their top issue.

Molly Murphy, president of the Democratic polling firm Impact Research, said that when abortion is not a top priority, “the wrong interpretation is that this issue doesn’t matter to voters.” She added that Marshall’s appearance could alienate most voters, who largely do not want to ban abortion. Ashley All, a Kansas-based political strategist who worked to defeat a 2022 anti-abortion ballot measure, said most Kansans feel the state has already handled the issue and that politicians should “stay out of it and stay out of their decisions.” All said, “This is the most extreme segment of the Republican electorate they are trying to reach with this, which is interesting in and of itself.”

Marshall’s appearance alongside ultraconservative religious figures underscores a challenge for the GOP as Democrats pursue inroads in traditionally red states such as Kansas and Texas: how to define faith, which for decades has been associated with conservatism, when running against challengers who promote more liberal readings of Christianity.

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