An anti-abortion group is launching a $2.5 million television and digital ad campaign in key Senate battleground states ahead of oral arguments next month in a Supreme Court case over a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of gestation.
The Susan B. Anthony List rolled out the campaign Wednesday, which the group says will feature Annie Fitzgerald, a young woman who was adopted, Dr. John Bruchalski, a practicing OB/GYN who regrets performing abortions, and Dr. Casey L. Delcoco, a family practitioner in television and digital ads.
The ads will air on broadcast and cable stations in the Washington, D.C., media market and will be distributed to voters through text messages and digital ads in nine battleground states, including states with races that will determine the Senate majority, such as Pennsylvania and Georgia.
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In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the high court will consider whether all pre-viability abortion limits are unconstitutional. The case is scheduled for Dec. 1. SBA List’s ad campaign is part of its broader $10 million effort to reach voters about the Dobbs case.
The group framed the campaign as an effort to win persuadable voters at the same time abortion becomes a point of debate in Senate campaigns in their states.
In a statement, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA List, said, “Science continually affirms the humanity of unborn children.”
“By 15 weeks, children in the womb have fully formed noses and lips, eyelids and eyebrows; they can suck their thumb, and even feel pain,” Dannenfelser said. “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. 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.”
“It’s time to return this issue back to the people to decide through their elected representatives. We hope the Court will soon allow all states to modernize our laws and protect women and children,” Dannenfelser added.
SBA List and its affiliates plan to spend $72 million during the 2021-22 election cycle, the group said.
The Dobbs case, as well as a controversial Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of gestation, is likely to become fodder for Senate races next year. Activists on both sides of the debate say the Dobbs case could prompt the court to reconsider or even revise its Roe v. Wade decision.
With the legality of abortion largely determined by the courts, the Senate comes into particular focus for both anti-abortion and pro-abortion rights groups, as the upper chamber is the one that confirms or rejects a president’s nominees to the Supreme Court.
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A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday found that a majority of people say the Supreme Court should uphold its decision in Roe v. Wade, which generally permits abortions before fetal viability or the point at which a child could survive outside the womb. Other polling shows the public supports more restrictions on abortion in the second and third trimesters, and they oppose the use of tax dollars to pay for abortion procedures.
