Democrats are investing more money in attacks on Republican Joni Ernst for her support of a personhood amendment in Iowa.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will launch a new ad Thursday as part of a multimillion dollar ad push across major markets statewide, calling Ernst “too extreme” for having backed the measure.
“Ernst would outlaw abortion, even for victims of rape or incest and would actually impose criminal penalties on doctors,” a narrator says in the ad.
The ad then cuts to a clip of Ernst saying during a Republican primary debate in May, “I think the provider should be punished if there were a personhood amendment,”
“And that’s just too extreme,” the narrator concludes.
The new ad closely echoes one released last month by Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley’s campaign, which also targeted Ernst for having co-sponsored a resolution to amend the Iowa constitution with protections for fetuses beginning at conception. Such a measure would seek to outlaw all abortions.
The line of attack has played to a broader theme being pushed by Braley and Democrats in Iowa, that Ernst holds extremist views on women’s health, climate change and other issues.
Personhood featured prominently when Braley and Ernst met for their first debate last week. There, Braley said that the personhood measure Ernst supported would have banned abortions and birth control, and put doctors who perform abortions at risk of prosecution.
“That is only if legislation would be passed,” Ernst insisted. “… When it does come to a woman’s access to contraception, I will always stand with our women on affordable access to contraception.”
Her support for the personhood amendment, Ernst said, was “simply a statement that I support life.”
Democrats, however, are betting with this new ad that voters will see Ernst’s support for personhood as a statement of something else entirely.
“Joni Ernst is simply too extreme for Iowa, and her support for personhood proves she’s on the wrong side of Iowa women,” said DSCC spokesman Justin Barasky. “Iowa women deserve a senator who will fight for their health care rights, not Joni Ernst’s dangerous efforts to set women’s health care rights back decades.”
Ernst and Braley have been locked in a statistical tie in recent public polling, although Braley has led Ernst among women voters.
Personhood has emerged as a popular and effective line of attack for Democrats in Senate contests across the country, especially in courting women voters. The issue has played out most notably in Colorado, where Sen. Mark Udall has hammered Republican Cory Gardner for his prior support of a personhood measure.
