Abortion rights group hits Marco Rubio over Zika
A top abortion rights organization is taking a swing at Sen. Marco Rubio. NARAL Pro-Choice America released a new campaign ad Tuesday, hitting Rubio over his decision to support legislation that didn’t fund women’s health clinics in the wake of the Zika outbreak. The advertisement — part of a six-figure ad campaign — also takes a swing at Rubio for not allowing women infected with the disease to get an abortion. “Sen. Rubio is putting the interests of extreme right-wing groups ahead of the women of Florida. Rubio’s actions are putting women and families in Florida, ground zero for this outbreak, at much greater risk,” said Sasha Bruce, senior vice president for campaigns and strategy at NARAL, in a statement. “Women deserve a full range of health care options, including abortion, not options limited by Sen. Rubio’s extreme and out-of-touch political beliefs. This is true always, but especially during a public health crisis. Sen. Rubio should stop playing politics and do the right thing for women and families of Florida.” Rubio backed several Zika funding bills, including a House GOP-backed bill that, among other things, included provisions to defund Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico. Senate Democrats blocked that $1.1 billion funding bill in June. The Senate is expected to take up the bill again Tuesday. “The Zika virus is here; it’s dangerous to pregnant women, and it has no cure. But Marco Rubio voted against funding health clinics that provide critical care during this public health emergency,” an announcer says in the ad. “Marco Rubio continues to be against a woman’s right to choose an abortion even they’re infected with the Zika virus. Tell Marco Rubio to stop putting his agenda ahead of the health and safety of women and families.” The ad will air on TV in Orlando and West Palm Beach, while digital ads will run across the state. “Patrick Murphy is the only candidate to have voted against every measure to fund Zika – once again putting himself and his political aspirations before Floridians,” said Olivia Perez-Cubas, a spokeswoman for Rubio’s campaign. “Marco was one of the first Republicans to support the president’s funding request and has supported every single Zika proposal that has come up in the Senate. Meanwhile, Murphy continues to exploit this public health and economic emergency in order to score political points. There were 705 cases of Zika in Florida as of Sept. 1. According to the Department of Health, 80 of those cases involved pregnant women, while 49 cases were locally acquired cases. The organization is running similar ads in Tennessee and Mississippi.
NARAL Pro-Choice America revels in Jeb Bush vs. Marco Rubio abortion spat
According to a report in Tuesday’s New York Times, Right to Rise, the Jeb Bush-backed Super PAC, may be attacking Marco Rubio for his position on abortion rights. The newspaper reports that Mike Murphy, Right to Rise’s chief strategist, recently showed some Republicans a video portraying Rubio as too extreme on abortion. In the first GOP presidential debate, in August, Rubio said that he had “never advocated” laws that would allow abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. That stance is to the right of what other recent Republican presidential candidates have taken on in the past, and apparently Right to Rise thinks it’s too extreme. Whether Republican primary voters think it is remains uncertain. Weighing in on the report is Ilyse Hogue, president of the pro-abortion rights group, NARAL Pro-Choice America. “We welcome Governor Bush and his team to reality,” Hogue said in a prepared statement. “We’re glad they finally figured out what we’ve been saying for years: The Republican position on abortion as advanced by Rubio and many others is way out of the mainstream and turns off voters. That being said, it is pretty striking to watch the far-right attack the extreme far-right on this issue. Grab the popcorn folks, it’s about to get interesting.”
GOP White House hopefuls scramble for anti-abortion vote
Trying to distinguish themselves in front of an important group of social conservative activists, Republican White House hopefuls on Friday used the National Right to Life Convention to share personal stories and detail the abortion restrictions they’ve helped write into law. The question now is whether the scramble helps or hinders an anti-abortion movement seeking unity as Republicans look to win back the presidency next November. National Right to Life Political Director Karen Cross urged the assembly to “make a decision right now that the issue of life trumps all else.” “There is no such thing as the perfect candidate,” she warned. Carol Tobias, the group’s president, argued in an interview that President Barack Obama benefited in both of his national victories from social conservatives who didn’t back John McCain in 2008 or Mitt Romney in 2012. “The quickest way to defeat a pro-lifer,” Tobias said, “is to fall in love with your candidate and then get your feelings hurt when they don’t win the nomination.” The candidates gave repeated nods to those sentiments, praising each other and hammering Democratic favorite Hillary Rodham Clinton, who supports abortion rights. Still, they spent most of their energy asserting their own conservative supremacy on the issue. Santorum boasted of how he sponsored the federal law that bans certain late-term abortion procedures after initially soft-pedaling his abortion stance because of Pennsylvania’s closely divided electorate. “You know me; there’s no quit in this dog,” he said. “Go ahead and nominate somebody who’s just going to go along. Then try to convince yourself you’ll make a difference.” Rick Perry predicted the next president will nominate as many as four Supreme Court justices — who could presumably overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationally. “If I have the opportunity to put justices on the Supreme Court, they will not be squishy,” the former Texas governor said. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio explained his abortion opposition as “inseparable from the effort to reclaim the American dream … for every child,” and recalled abortion restrictions he helped pass as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Jeb Bush, whose tenure as Florida governor overlapped Rubio’s speakership, mentioned some of the same laws in a video presentation. He did not physically attend the convention. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has never held elected office, but he blasted abortion providers as “evil.” Tobias said her group doesn’t wade into primaries in part because it’s hard to find meaningful distinctions between candidates, though she acknowledged the campaigns will find them. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie supported abortion rights earlier in his career, something he generally avoids talking about now. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker celebrated passage of a new state ban on most abortions beyond the 20th week of pregnancy. Yet late in his 2014 re-election campaign, he aired an ad in which he affirmed his abortion opposition while emphasizing that Wisconsin law “leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor.” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has sponsored a ban on abortions after 20 weeks. But some conservatives blast him for voting to confirm Obama’s two Supreme Court nominees. Tobias said those details sometimes matter to abortion opponents, but she maintained that nitpicking is counter-productive. For many anti-abortion voters, she said, choosing a primary candidate is about “trust” and “personal feel” rather than policy. The candidates’ approaches here suggest they understand that. Rubio and Perry talked about seeing their children on ultrasounds during pregnancy. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, talked about how he gravitated to pediatric surgery because of how much he values children. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal talked Thursday night about having to defend his anti-abortion stance in his interviews for medical school. Santorum tells the story of doctors advising that his daughter, Bella, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder, would not have a good quality of life and could die as an infant. “There is no better way to preach the gospel of life,” Santorum said Friday, than to have school-age Bella “in the White House.” Public opinion, meanwhile, remains divided. An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted in January and February found that 51 percent of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 45 percent think it should be illegal in most or all cases. At NARAL Pro-Choice America, a leading abortion rights advocacy group, Sasha Bruce said that means Republicans “are fighting over a slice of the minority,” putting them at a disadvantage in November. Tobias countered that among voters who rank abortion as a key issue in deciding on a candidate, “we win a majority of them.” Her movement’s job, she said, is to increase the share of voters who cast their vote “based on the life issue. If we do, we win.” Bruce said her organization is focused on educating general election voters about the success abortion opponents have had limiting abortion access through state-by-state restrictions. “They aren’t overturning Roe v. Wade, but they’re just chipping away,” she said. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
