By Brian Slodysco
Associated Press
Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading reproductive health care provider and abortion rights organization, plans to spend a record $50 million ahead of the November midterm election campaign, where disruption of pregnancy will be one of the key issues to mobilize voters.
The decision to set this budget, which breaks the previous record of $45 million spent by the association in 2020, comes months after the Supreme Court in June overturned Roe v.
Wade, the landmark 1973 case that established abortion as a constitutional right.
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The campaign will be carried out by the political and advocacy arms of the organization and will focus on the offices of the governors, the seats in the Senate of the country and the legislative races in nine states where the right to abortion could be restricted or expanded depending on of the voting result.
This historic funding for the mid-term campaign, on which less money is normally spent, is made possible by the large amount of money raised following the decision of the new conservative majority of the Supreme Court, which caused a tectonic shift in the abortion policy.
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Now, for the first time, Republicans who have long campaigned against abortion and Roe v.
Wade will take on voters on an issue that is no longer hypothetical and has real-life consequences.
Planned Parenthood says its spending will help remind citizens called to the polls in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin of the stakes, in a bid to boost turnout. of Democratic and independent voters.
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"Whoever wins this midterm election will determine whether a state has access to abortion and potentially determine whether we face a nationwide abortion ban," said Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes.
"We will be clear about who is on each side," she clarified.
A recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that a majority of Americans think Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to legal abortion across the country.
More than half of those surveyed said they felt at least somewhat "sad" or "angry" about the Supreme Court's decision.
Voters in Kansas, where the Republican Party rules, earlier this month rejected by nearly 20% a constitutional amendment that would have allowed the legislature to advance a ban on pregnancy termination.
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The question of whether it really is a galvanizing issue will become clear after election day on November 8.
"We say it every cycle: 'This is the important election,'" said Amy Kennedy, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Votes in Georgia.
"For us, this is truly the most important election cycle of our lifetime," she said.
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Planned Parenthood intends to reach 6 million voters through phone calls, digital advertising, mail and radio ads, and going door-to-door.
It has already aired some television ads in Wisconsin, where Republicans control the state House and where Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson are running for re-election.
In parallel, it also launched the website www.takecontrol2022.com.
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Although the Supreme Court ruling left it up to the states to define abortion policy, Planned Parenthood says it is also investing in the nation's Senate races because Republicans have expressed an interest in trying to ban abortion nationwide. national, although such a measure would almost certainly be vetoed by President Joe Biden.
Democrats and their allies have long tried, without much success, to galvanize their supporters by focusing on abortion.
But the high court's decision clarified the stakes like never before.
In about a dozen Republican-led states, abortion has already been banned or heavily restricted.
Many more are expected to follow in his footsteps.
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"When people go to vote this November, almost half of the people who vote could be living in a state that has already banned abortion or is moving quickly to ban it. These are totally new circumstances," Lawson recalled.
"There are a lot of issues that people are concerned about, no doubt, but the state of abortion access is absolutely one of the defining issues this November," she stressed.
