The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List is mounting a multimillion-dollar ad campaign Wednesday to make abortion an issue at the top of voters’ minds in nine states featuring Senate races in next year’s elections.
The $2.5 million expenditure is part of a larger $10 million advocacy campaign aimed at reaching Americans as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments on Dec. 1 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case involving Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban.
The newest ads feature an adopted woman, a doctor who regrets performing abortions, and a doctor who cares for pregnant women and their children.
The ads are set to air on broadcast and cable stations in D.C. and online in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“I think the ultimate goal here is to ensure that battleground state voters don’t end up being in an information vacuum where the undeniable science that shows that these children deserve protection is drowned out by political scare tactics,” said Tim Edson, SBA List national field director, at a press conference with reporters.
Mr. Edson said Democrats fretting about lagging poll numbers and poor performance in this month’s elections are likely to make the Dobbs case a key part of their messaging to voters in hopes of reversing their political fortunes next year.
SBA List’s newest effort is focused on ensuring that pro-choice viewpoints do not drown out their pro-life opponents.
“The U.S. is one of seven nations — including China and North Korea — that allow late-term abortion on demand more than halfway through pregnancy, well after unborn babies feel pain,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, SBA List president, said in a statement.
“Americans overwhelmingly reject such extreme policies, yet their elected lawmakers are shackled to Supreme Court precedents that in effect allow unlimited abortion up until birth — these are needlessly divisive and decades out of step with medicine and technology,” she said.
SBA List’s newest ads are set to air on television and online this week and again after Thanksgiving.
The pro-life group’s opponents at Planned Parenthood are also planning to organize around the December oral arguments at the Supreme Court, but some affiliates are planning virtual activism instead of mass demonstrations physically at the court.
“Given that we are still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, we will not be organizing busses from our area to travel to Washington, D.C.,” wrote a Planned Parenthood affiliate in New York to its supporters earlier this month.
“However, there will be a national virtual event on December 1 that you can participate in with supporters from across the country. The event details are being finalized and will be shared shortly,” the affiliate wrote.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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