Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Leading abortion advocacy group NARAL has pulled a nationwide television ad after being overrun by criticism from pro-life groups and even abortion advocates and pro-abortion lawmakers. The latest concerns about the accuracy of the ad came from Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter, who called the ad "blatantly untrue and unfair."

In a letter to NARAL Thursday, Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said the ad is inaccurate and hurts the pro-abortion cause. The senator is a longtime abortion advocate.

"The NARAL advertisement is not helpful to the pro-choice cause which I support," Specter wrote in a letter to Nancy Keenan, president of the group. "When NARAL puts on such an advertisement, in my opinion it undercuts its credibility and injures the pro-choice cause."

"Judge Roberts did not act improperly in his advocacy before the Supreme Court," Specter told Keenan.

Shortly after receiving the letter, Keenan said her group would pull the ad but claiming that it was because critics had "misconstrued" its message.

"Unfortunately, the debate over that advertisement has become a distraction from the serious discussion we hoped to have with the American public," Keenan wrote Specter in a response letter, according to Reuters.

Keenan indicated the pro-abortion group would continue running ads against Roberts, albeit with a different message.

"[W]e are changing from our current advertisement to one that examines Mr. Roberts' record on several points, including his advocacy for overturning Roe v. Wade," she wrote in the letter.

Specter's comments come day after Sen. Pat Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate panel, said the ad was a waste of money because it would not change any senators' minds.

NARAL has spend $500,000 to run the ad on cable news networks and television stations in Rhode Island and Maine to target pro-abortion Republican senators with the hope of persuading them to vote against Roberts.

The ad claims Roberts backs abortion violence because he wrote a legal brief for the former Bush administration siding with abortion protesters. However, he merely said an 1800s civil rights statute should not be used to prosecute protesters who break the law when state statutes are sufficient to prosecute them.

At least one station refused to run the ad prior to NARAL pulling it.

Mike Young, vice president and general manager of WABI in Bangor, Maine, told AP that he ran the ad until noticing the national criticism of it from all sides.

"After careful thoughtful analysis, we determined the ad was at worst false, and at best misleading," he said.