Ad Attacks John McCain on Abortion, Falsely Claims He Wants Women in Jail
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 18, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Another pro-abortion ad is heading to television stations in key battleground states and it contains several inaccuracies. This new commercial attacks Senator John McCain on his position in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade and says 21 states will protect women and children if that happens.
McCain has repeatedly said he favors overturning Roe, which allowed virtually unlimited abortions for any reason throughout pregnancy.
Should the Supreme Court overturn the landmark case, which has resulted in 50 million abortions since 1973, states will once again have the chance to protect women and children.
The Winning Message Action Fund, an arm of the pro-abortion National Institute for Reproductive Health, doesn’t want that to happen.
"John McCain believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned," a female narrator says in the ad and shows a clip of McCain saying so at a South Carolina rally.
"If that happens, 21 states will immediately move to ban abortion," the ad complains.
"We have questions, John McCain," it continues. "Will you stand by as states put women in jail? If women are forced back into back alleys? Making abortions illegal won’t stop them. It will just make them extremely dangerous."
Spokeswoman Samantha Levine tells the Wall St. Journal that the "multi-million dollar campaign" will air in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, and Wisconsin, starting at the beginning of October.
The ad contains a number of flaws and inaccuracies.
Though it contends state laws banning abortions would put women in prison, no law prohibiting abortion before Roe v. Wade ever called for putting women in jail as the statues target abortion practitioners who break the law.
Susan Armacost, the legislative director of Wisconsin Right to Life, has talked about this misconception and told LifeNews.com that the pro-life movement views women who have obtained abortions to be victims of the profit-oriented abortion industry, not criminals.
She indicated numerous women who have had abortions, regret their decisions and now support the pro-life view work with her organization.
"These are our sisters in the pro-life movement who work tirelessly to prevent other women and their unborn babies from facing the tragedy of abortion," said Armacost. "They are not criminals."
The ad also claims that making abortions illegal will make them dangerous, yet it doesn’t mention the recent legal abortion death of 22-year-old Laura Smith, a Massachusetts resident.
Nor does it mention the thirteen women who have died form the abortion drug RU 486 (mifepristone), the thousands who have been injured or how Planned Parenthood has put women’s health at risk by violating FDA guidelines.
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