Much like the U.S. Senate race in Colorado, abortion became the focal point in the race for governor after the Republican candidate took a contentious stance on a popular birth control method.

Watch: Bob Beauprez says IUDs are abortifacients

Wednesday’s discussion came a day after Bob Beauprez suggested that intrauterine devices, known as IUDs, cause abortions.

“IUD is an abortifacient,” he said at The Denver Post’s gubernatorial debate Tuesday, labeling the contraceptive as a drug that causes abortions.

The remark once again injected abortion politics into a campaign season in which women hold the key to the election and anti-abortion activists are pushing a so-called personhood ballot initiative.

Beauprez drew a rebuke from experts in the medical community who called his assertion false, while Democrats and like-minded women’s rights organizations suggested it showed the candidate is out of touch.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and 10 other physician organizations, as well as the Federal Drug Administration, define IUDs as contraceptives that prevent a pregnancy. An abortifacient ends a pregnancy after it has occurred.

Dr. Daniel Grossman, an ob/gyn who does reproductive research and who practices in San Francisco, said the definition of a pregnancy as the implantation of a fertilized egg is an established scientific standard. He said IUDs are not abortifacient.

“I would say in mainstream medicine, this is really not a debate,” Grossman said.

In an interview after the debate, Beauprez said he doesn’t oppose contraception, calling the use of IUDs a “personal choice.” But he reiterated that he opposes taxpayer funding of the devices and called himself strongly “pro-life.”

“Do you understand how IUDs work? The egg is fertilized and never allowed to impact,” he said. “That’s why people who consider that life begins at conception believe (IUDs) are an abortifacient.”

The organization supporting Colorado’s personhood amendment, which would grant legal protections to fetuses, cheered Beauprez’s remarks, saying, “It’s great to see a candidate for governor come out against abortion-causing IUDs.”

The topic entered the debate when Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper touted a state program — funded primarily by a foundation created by billionaire Warren Buffett — that helped lower teen birth rates by 40 percent in five years after providing 30,000 IUDs and other implants to low-income women in Colorado.

Beauprez’s campaign on Wednesday said the candidate stood by his remark, while Hickenlooper’s campaign called Beauprez’s view “concerning.”

John Frank: 303-954-2409, jfrank@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ByJohnFrank