A Michigan judge tried to block an abortion rights measure. His ex-wife says he helped her get an abortion in college.

Brian Zahra is now up for re-election to Michigan’s Supreme Court, with a prominent anti-abortion group spending heavily to boost his candidacy.

PLYMOUTH, Mich. — 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.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/michigan-judge-tried-block-abortion-rights-measure-ex-wife-says-helped-rcna54998