Albuquerque 20-Week Abortion Ban Outperformed Mitt Romney While Outspent 4-1

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 20, 2013   |   11:52AM   |   Washington, DC

Although the late-term abortion ban in Albuquerque failed last night by a 10 percentage-point margin, pro-life advocates say the pro-life movement can take heart. Despite being outspent by a 4-1 margin by Planned Parenthood and abortion activists, the 20-week abortion ban fared better with voters in New Mexico’s largest city than Mitt Romney did against Barack Obama.

If any conservatives say the pro-life issue is a losing issue compared to moderate candidates, they need only look at the results of the vote on the late-term abortion ban to see that pro-life issues fare better than moderate Republicans.

Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser told LifeNews pro-life people can be proud of their efforts.

“Months ago, most Albuquerque residents had no idea their city had become a national hub for late abortion. Local pro-life activists took action to educate their neighbors and ended up gathering 27,000 signatures – more than twice the amount necessary – for a city ballot initiative to stop late abortion,” she said. “Planned Parenthood and other national pro-abortion groups, including Organizing for America, saw this spontaneous grassroots effort as a mortal threat and spent $1 million to defeat it.

“Despite being outspent four to one, pro-life grassroots activists were able to educate thousands of citizens about fetal pain and the reality of late abortion. This was no small feat in a deep blue city that chose Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by a 15-point margin,” she said.

Dannenfelser continued: “There remains growing national consensus that babies and women should be protected from dangerous late abortions after 20 weeks. Thirteen states and the U.S. House of Representatives have all passed similar protective legislation and the bill introduced this month by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) already has 40 Senate cosponsors. Polls show Americans are united in opposing this brutal practice and it is time the law reflects our natural recoil from this horror.”

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She told LifeNews that her groups and pro-life advocates collectively ran $100,000 in television and online ads, including one featuring former abortionist turned pro-life OB/GYN Dr. Anthony Levatino of Santa Fe. She said SBA List sent out 70,000+ early voting information mail pieces, mailed 30,000+ absentee ballot applications and 48,000 GOTV postcards. The group sent 77,000 pieces of literature encouraging early voting distributed throughout churches and parishes and had 73,000 phone calls to identified pro-life voters made by volunteers.

Dannenfelser said three full-page newspaper ads and two half-page ads in the Albuquerque Journal included one exposing the true risk to mothers in a late abortion procedure by showing informed consent forms women must sign before undergoing abortion.

Some pro-life advocates may have accidentally voted against the ban thinking they were voting against abortion.