DENVER – The 2016 election is a year-and-a-half away, but a familiar message of a “war on women” already is emerging in Colorado’s U.S. Senate race – and one of the targets is a woman.

Attacks against Republican state Sen. Ellen Roberts of Durango intensified this week after The Durango Herald reported that Roberts is considering a run for U.S. Senate. If she were to survive a tough primary, Roberts would take on incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet. She has not formally announced a campaign.

Similar “war on women” messaging was used to attack Republicans in previous election cycles, most recently against Cory Gardner in the state’s last U.S. Senate race. Despite the attacks, Gardner went on to defeat incumbent Democrat Mark Udall last year.

The situation is unique this year, not just because Roberts is a woman but also because she states she is pro-choice and supports a woman’s right to have a safe and legal abortion and access to contraception, including intrauterine devices, or IUDs.

But Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains has walked back support for Roberts, disagreeing that she remains pro-choice. It points to recent votes, including her support for a measure that would have created a fetal homicide law in Colorado. The bill failed after Democrats opposed the measure, suggesting that it was tantamount to so-called “personhood,” or defining a fetus as a person.

“You cannot support fetal personhood measures and be pro-choice,” said Cathy Alderman, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. “Despite what the proponents claimed, when you define ‘person’ prior to birth, you have created fetal personhood. Just saying it’s not personhood doesn’t change that.”

Roberts pointed out that the bill exempted an act committed by a mother, a medical procedure performed by a doctor and the administration of legal medication, in an effort to curb concerns that it would have led to full personhood and a ban on abortion. Colorado would have joined 37 other states with similar laws.

The bill was introduced after a tragic event in Longmont, in which a woman had her 7-month-old fetus cut from her womb by another woman in a vicious attack. The fetus died, but prosecutors said they were unable to file a murder charge under current law.

“I do think it’s important to be vigilant and caring about the advancement of women in society in general,” Roberts said. “But if we want to talk about erosion, I would say it’s eroding credibility to try to insist that everybody is going to think in one monolithic way.”

Critics of the fetal-homicide bill said it would have been a shot across the bow, paving the way for more restrictions on the rights of women to access abortion and other types of pregnancy care. They pointed to examples in other states where women were charged under fetal homicide laws for incidents involving their own bodies. It’s also been highlighted that the bill was modeled after legislation pushed by the pro-life group Americans United for Life.

Opponents said Colorado’s law is already adequate, pointing to a measure from 2013 that created a new category of crime to address violent acts committed against the unborn. While the measure stopped short of creating a murder charge, it created long sentences for those convicted.

There were efforts this year to make the 2013 law stronger and remove a definition of “person” from the fetal homicide bill, but Roberts voted against an amendment that would have stripped the “person” language.

Colorado voters on three separate occasions rejected ballot efforts to create personhood by wide margins. Roberts said she joined in voting against those initiatives. But Alderman asked, “When given the opportunity to disavow fetal personhood explicitly as the voters of Colorado have done time and time again, why didn’t Senator Roberts do so?

“We no longer believe her to be moderate, and we no longer consider her an ally on women’s health issues,” Alderman continued. “Frankly, we are disappointed by it, but she may feel that is what she needs to do if she is going to go for a statewide race.”

Roberts countered that her votes had nothing to do with any professional ambitions, adding that she also has found herself ostracized by the pro-life community.

“It’s disappointing to me when a group decides to divide women from each other,” Roberts said. “When they apply their litmus test, if someone doesn’t pass their litmus test, does that mean I don’t care about women’s health? That’s untenable.”

pmarcus@durangoherald.com