A pro-life group is spending $2 million on an ad buy ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling concerning the right to abortion, and plans to spend $78 million ahead of the November election in battleground states.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America expects to reach eight million voters during its outreach this election cycle.
In its digital ad campaign surrounding the Supreme Court’s ruling, the group wants to educate voters on developments in science about the formation of life inside the womb.
“As we wait for the pivotal decision in the Dobbs case, we are working hard to educate voters across America about the unmistakable humanity of unborn children revealed by science. Unborn children have a beating heart by six weeks, are forming their unique fingerprints by 10 weeks, and can suck their thumb, make faces and feel pain by 15 weeks,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president. “The more Americans learn, the more they reject our extreme status quo that allows abortion on demand up to birth.”
The ads are set to begin Thursday and run in Georgia, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
The justices are expected to rule on the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization as early as Friday.
The legal dispute at issue weighs a Mississippi ban on abortion at 15 weeks.
Mississippi officials argue that Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion nationwide, should be overturned because it’s outdated.
The legal battle was brought by Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the state’s only abortion clinic, and a doctor who provides abortions. According to court papers, the clinic provides abortions up to 16 weeks of gestation.
They challenged the state’s Gestational Age Act, enacted in 2018. The law bans abortions after 15 weeks unless there is a medical emergency or severe abnormality within the fetus.
The justices are expected to overrule Roe, according to a draft opinion leaked to the press last month.
Pro-choice protesters outraged over the draft opinion have shown up outside the houses of some of the conservative justices.
It is the first time a full draft opinion has been leaked in the Supreme Court’s 233-year history.
In the leaked document, first obtained by Politico, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said abortion should return to the state legislatures.
“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion,” he wrote. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.”
“It’s time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” reads the opinion, which was dated in February.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the draft opinion was authentic but noted it did not represent a final ruling. He has called for an investigation to uncover who leaked the document to the press.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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