Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Launches New Ad Campaign Targeting Trump For Exploiting The COVID-19 Crisis To Ban Abortion
For Immediate Release: April 15, 2020
Contact: [email protected]
New ad campaign will highlight how the Trump Administration puts ideology over science — even during a global pandemic
NARAL Pro-Choice America today launched a new digital ad campaign to hold Donald Trump and Republican politicians accountable for putting ideology over science amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The first ad, out today, is part of a six-figure investment aimed at targeting swing voters in key battleground states. It features a group of women voters discussing over video chat how Trump and Republicans are using the pandemic to push their personal views no matter the cost.
You can see the ad here.
Additional ads will be released in the coming weeks.
Statement from NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue:
“NARAL is all in to alert voters about how Donald Trump and Republicans are choosing to exploit the national crisis to ban abortion, and in doing so hurting women, helping no one, and further undermining our health and our rights. This move is the latest example of their refusal to put science, medical expertise, and public health above their own ideological agenda. During a global pandemic, they spread disinformation — about abortion, about doctors, and about the actual pandemic — which is the definition of irresponsible leadership. It has never been more crucial for leaders to lift up scientific expertise and prioritize the well-being of the American people. Between now and November, we will be reminding voters that, when push came to shove, Donald Trump cravenly advanced his own interests and those of his most radical supporters at the expense of Americans’ health and lives.”
These new ads are part of NARAL’s multi-faceted, largest-ever electoral program for the 2020 election. Key to NARAL’s strategy is inoculating voters against the extreme disinformation campaigns that have become the anti-choice movement and Republicans’ calling cards. Also key to NARAL’s strategy is reaching, persuading, and mobilizing key voter segments including soft-partisan persuadable women voters and low-propensity, pro-choice voters who are motivated by Trump and Republicans’ commitment to ending Roe v. Wade, criminalizing abortion, and punishing women. These critical voting blocs value reproductive freedom and align with the seven in 10 Americans who support Roe v. Wade.
Background on Trump and the anti-choice movement’s exploitation of the COVID-19 crisis:
As the country grapples with the pandemic, the Trump-Pence administration and anti-choice politicians across the country continue to try to undermine reproductive freedom. Officials in states across the country—including Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia — have attempted to use COVID-19 as an excuse to ban abortion. Unsurprisingly, lawmakers in many of these states spent much of last year introducing and passing extreme bans on abortion.
And anti-choice Attorneys General in 20 states are involved in anti-choice amicus curiae briefs in an attempt to restrict abortion during the pandemic: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
In March, Vice President Mike Pence (who disastrously mishandled his handling of Indiana’s HIV crisis as the state’s governor) held a call with anti-choice leaders related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, representatives of more than four dozen anti-choice groups penned a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar pushing disinformation about abortion to demand the agency force providers to cease providing abortion care and take other steps to undermine reproductive freedom during this global pandemic.
Anti-choice politicians across the country are trying to use the pandemic as an excuse to try to ban abortion, using medical disinformation to push their unpopular agenda at the direct expense of people’s health and lives. Much of the disinformation spread by anti-choice groups is outrageous fabrication designed to confuse and mislead voters and deflect attention away from anti-choice politicians’ efforts to criminalize abortion and punish women during a time of national and global crisis.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and seven other expert medical organizations say abortion care is “a time-sensitive service for which a delay of several weeks, or in some cases days, may increase the risks or potentially make it completely inaccessible. The consequences of being unable to obtain an abortion profoundly impact a person’s life, health, and well-being.”
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NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates and chapters are dedicated to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom for all. For more than 50 years, NARAL has worked to guarantee that every woman has the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. Since 1969, NARAL has made history, grown to over 2.5 million members, and met the moments that have defined this fight with action, power, and freedom. In recognition of its work defending our constitutional right to choose, Fortune Magazine described NARAL as “one of the top 10 advocacy groups in America.”