The abortion giant Planned Parenthood began running its six-figure ad buy Wednesday to pressure a Maine Republican to vote against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins is a key swing vote in Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Collins is pro-abortion, and she has not yet announced her decision about him.
The Hill reports the abortion chain’s ads will begin to run Wednesday on broadcast, cable and the internet. One ad features several women around a table discussing their concerns about Kavanaugh and the future of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that allowed abortions for basically any reason through all nine months of pregnancy.
“If she really, really believes in women’s rights and what she’s saying then she needs to stand up,” one person says in the ad.
Dawn Laguens, the executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said the ad is their answer to Collins’ requests to hear from her constituents on the issue.
“Senator Collins asked to hear from Mainers and here they are, loud and clear, asking her to oppose the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” Laguens said.
Over the past few weeks, NARAL, Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups have been targeting Collins with phone calls, political ads, fundraising for a pro-abortion Democrat opponent and a coat hanger campaign.
However, the senator told reporters this week that her office has received a number of threatening phone calls and other messages from abortion activists, including one caller who threatened to rape one of her female staffers.
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“In one case—and we are going to turn this over to the police, but unfortunately, of course, the person didn’t leave a name or number—but they actually threatened to rape one of my young female staffers,” she told the Wall Street Journal.
Collins also slammed a political fundraising campaign against her as an attempt at “bribery.”
With Republicans holding just a two-member majority in the U.S. Senate, every vote counts, and abortion activists know it. They have been targeting Collins, fellow pro-abortion Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and several moderately pro-life Democrats with huge spending campaigns.
Collins did vote to confirm President Donald Trump’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch, and she has made several positive statements about Kavanaugh.
Pro-abortion groups have labeled Kavanaugh a “serious threat” to “women’s right” to abortion, while national pro-life leaders have expressed high hopes for Kavanaugh and the future of unborn babies’ rights. If confirmed, he would be the fifth conservative justice on the Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh has served on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. for more than a decade, where he developed an extensive record of protecting religious liberty and enforcing restrictions on abortion. Pro-life leaders believe he would do the same on the Supreme Court.
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on his confirmation in October.
ACTION: Contact Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
