WASHINGTON — Democrats released novel campaign ads on Wednesday and detailed how they plan to talk about abortion access and reproductive rights before the 2024 elections.
Top Democratic campaign leaders said during a press conference call that they expect these issues to be key to regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives and maintaining control of the U.S. Senate, especially in swing states and purple districts.
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Gary Peters, a U.S. senator from Michigan, said the party believes access to abortion will be a “fundamental issue” in deciding which candidates voters will choose for the next Congress.
“I think it’s very clear to Americans that if you vote for a Republican in the United States Senate, they will likely push a nationwide abortion ban that will affect you no matter what state you live in,” Peters said.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairwoman Suzan DelBene, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Washington, said during the 2024 campaign that “the threat to abortion rights across the country will be clearer than ever.”
“In 2022, we saw how much the issue of abortion access motivated Democrats, independents and moderate Republican voters,” DelBene said. “We have already seen evidence this cycle that abortion remains a pressing issue in battleground districts.”
Buy the Democrat ad
The Democratic National Committee announced a six-figure ad buy Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.
According to the DNC’s announcement, this opinion and changes in state-level reproductive rights since then will “highlight the stakes of the 2024 presidential election on reproductive freedom.”
The campaign will include billboards in Atlanta; Milwaukee; Phoenix; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Tallahassee, Florida. The DNC also plans to run social media ads in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
While voters choose candidates based on several issues, with the economy typically leading the way, Democrats said Wednesday they plan to focus on reproductive rights over the next year and a half.
DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison said the “framework of this election” will be that the political parties have two different ways of looking at the future of the country.
Democrats, he said, believe lawmakers should “protect the freedoms of the American people and that we should have more freedoms and more rights.”
The GOP, he argued, “is about taking away the freedom of the American people, taking away the sacred freedoms that we hold dear as Americans and all the things that make us so unique in terms of democracy around the world.” These include efforts to disenfranchise voters, ban books, restrict free speech, determine who people love, and eliminate reproductive rights, he added.
Attempts to pass legislation
On Wednesday morning, Democrats in the U.S. Senate also focused on reproductive rights, announcing they would try to pass four bills they believe Republicans should support.
The legislation would ensure the right to travel across state lines to access abortion, protect health care providers in states where abortion is legal from laws in other states, guarantee people the right to access birth control and enhance privacy protections for health information and location on the Internet.
Democratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a nationwide, constitutional right to abortion has led to a country where “Republican politicians have the final say in (women’s) health care decisions.”
“Doctors in some states are forced to deny patients the life-saving care they need or risk being sent to prison,” Murray said. “Providers in states like mine are being pushed to the breaking point trying to handle the influx of out-of-state patients.”
Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin told the story of a woman in her home state who had to wait for medical care for a miscarriage until she became so ill that doctors feared legal consequences.
She also mentioned a woman who had to leave the state to access an abortion, noting that the state’s abortion law was written in 1849 and went into effect again after the Dobbs decision last summer.
“Living under this draconian criminal statute has been nothing short of terrible for Wisconsin families,” Baldwin said.
She added that one of the women did not receive medical care when her water broke at 17 weeks. Instead, she had to wait until her fever reached 101 degrees and she started showing signs of sepsis.
“Another couple I spoke to in Wisconsin was told they had serious abnormalities at 13 weeks of pregnancy. “But she was forced to remain pregnant with an untenable pregnancy and play travel agent and lawyer while trying to figure out how to get the health care she needed out of state,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin says another woman reported bleeding that continued for 10 days after emergency department workers refused to facilitate her following an incomplete miscarriage.
Survey among doctors
Kaiser Family Foundation published a survey Wednesday detailed how the end of the basic right to abortion has impacted women’s health care across the country.
“Although most gynecologists do not provide abortion services, most gynecologists provide treatment for miscarriages using the same procedures and medications used for abortions,” the study said. “Four in 10 gynecologists in states where abortion is illegal report limitations in their ability to manage miscarriages and pregnancy-related medical emergencies.”
Six out of 10 gynecologists reported using mifepristone to treat miscarriages.
This medication is approved by the FDA for exploit for up to 10 weeks. However, anti-abortion groups have filed a lawsuit that could invalidate the original permit issued 23 years ago.
Here’s the thing before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans after a federal judge in Texas sided with anti-abortion groups and halted approval of the drug. The lawsuit will likely go to the U.S. Supreme Court after the appeals court issues its ruling, which could happen any day now.
Most of the nearly 600 doctors who responded to the survey also said that “pregnancy-related mortality and maternal health disparities have widened as a result” of the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion access last summer.
