On September 1, after the rebroadcast of an August 28 interview during which Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez claimed to have seen a statistic showing that “as high as 70 percent, maybe even more” of pregnancies among African-American women end in abortion, Colorado Public Radio host Ryan Warner made the following statement:

Since our interview first aired on Monday, Beauprez apologized for the 70 percent figure he cited regarding the abortion rate among African-Americans. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that some 33 percent of pregnancies among African-American women end in abortion. That is about three times the abortion rate among whites. Now, other studies put the figure higher, including one by the Guttmacher Institute, which put the abortion rate among pregnant black women at 43 percent. Quoting Congressman Beauprez now, “I was wrong about the statistic quoted in a recent interview. I apologize to the African-American community and anyone else who was offended. I should have verified the statistic before repeating it.”

Colorado Media Matters noted Beauprez's false claim and Warner's failure to correct it. Under pressure from elected officials and other organizations, Beauprez issued his apology one day after Colorado Media Matters' August 29 report. On August 30, Colorado Reps. Terrance Carroll (D-Denver) and Rosemary Marshall (D-Denver) issued a joint press release condemning Beauprez's “careless statements” and calling for an apology. A coalition of women's health care and rights organizations also issued a statement in which they said Beauprez's claim “showed an alarming lack of knowledge or was a willful attempt to mislead the public.” Beauprez obliged that afternoon by issuing a public apology “to the African-American community and anyone else who was offended,” admitting he “should have verified the statistic before repeating it.”