[ Who says that Republicans are not for abortions? ]
When Brian Zahra learned that he had impregnated his 20-year-old girlfriend in May 1983, he grabbed the Yellow Pages, found an abortion clinic in the Detroit suburbs and made an appointment, the woman told NBC News in an interview last month.
They were of the same mind regarding what to do about the pregnancy and did not discuss other options, according to Alyssa Jones, who went by her maiden name, Alyssa Watson, at the time.
On May 18 that year, Jones said, Zahra drove her to the clinic and paid for her abortion. As they sat in the car afterward, Jones, then a sophomore in college, hung her head and wept, feeling the conflicting emotions of a life-changing experience. Zahra, she said, seemed frustrated that she was upset and that he couldn’t console her. He yelled at her, she recalled: If you didn’t want to do this, why did we do this?
Zahra, then a 23-year-old small-business owner who was a little more than a year away from enrolling in law school, is now a state judge and up for re-election to Michigan’s Supreme Court.
“I’m grateful I had a choice, and I think he’s grateful he had a choice,” Jones said in an interview.
In early September, thirty-nine years after Jones says she terminated the pregnancy, Zahra voted to block a ballot initiative — known as Proposal 3 — that would enshrine abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution, arguing in a dissenting opinion that insufficient spacing between some words on the petition rendered it incompatible with Michigan law.
According to campaign finance records, a prominent anti-abortion group in the state is currently spending to help him win another term.
Zahra did not respond to detailed questions. But five hours after NBC News first contacted him Monday, he called Jones and left a voice message.
“Alyssa, this is Brian,” Zahra said. “I was contacted by a Washington reporter today who asked me some questions about you on a voicemail. I haven’t called back. I’d like to talk to you.”
Jones, who said it was the first time she remembers him calling her since 1995, said she did not return that call.
Jones shared the details of her experience exclusively with NBC News in two interviews, one in late October and one at her home on Tuesday. She said she was moved to do so after a series of national and state events, including the Supreme Court’s decision this year to overturn federal protections for abortion rights and Zahra’s vote against the Michigan ballot proposal.
Jones said she was incensed by what she views as hypocrisy by Zahra, since she believes the termination of her pregnancy ultimately helped him build a successful law career, and that his vote was an attempt to deny others a similar choice.
Jones confided in a friend in 1983, within months of the abortion, the friend said. And she told her current husband, Dennis Jones, shortly after they began dating in 1994, he said. Medical records show she disclosed an abortion and two miscarriages to her doctor more than five years ago. Zahra and Jones would go on to marry in 1987 and divorce in 1993.
Brian Zahra is up for re-election to Michigan’s Supreme Court, with a prominent anti-abortion group spending heavily to boost his candidacy.
www.nbcnews.com