NARAL Pro-Choice America announced today that it is targeting Rick Scott and two other GOP Governors this election season with mail, online ads and phone calls questioning what they call their anti-choice agenda, as well as making "it a priority above the economic interests voters elected them to address."
Wisconsin's Scott Walker and Kansas' Sam Brownback are the other two Republican governors being targeted by the group.
“7 in 10 voters support a woman’s right to choose and yet, despite the longstanding need for attention to the economic conditions in all three of these states, these Governors have spent a substantial part of their terms figuring out how to deny women access to vital health care," said Sasha Bruce, Senior Vice President for Strategy and Campaigns for NARAL Pro-Choice America in a statement. "We know the more voters learn not only about their extreme positions but, equally as important, also their misplaced priorities they are less likely to support them. From now until Election Day we’ll be reminding voters in these key states about what their governors have cost them.”
Such tactics by pro-choice groups have worked for Democrats in the past couple of election cycles, and the Charlie Crist campaign began airing a commercial airing earlier this month that blasted Governor Scott for requiring mandatory ultrasounds and opposing Roe v. Wade.
Democrats and pro-choice groups are acting aggressively on the issue of abortion during this campaign season. In their press release, NARAL Pro-Choice America boasts about their "highly successful" ad they ran in last year's Virginia gubernatorial race that depicted then-Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli as out of touch for prioritizing a what they called a "dangerous anti-choice agenda that undercut the economic security of the state’s women and families."
In 2011, Scott's first year as governor, he signed several major abortion-related bills passed by the Legislature, including one that required women to receive an ultrasound before undergoing an abortion and be offered the opportunity to have it described to her. Another tightened requirements for parental notification when a minor seeks an abortion. A third prohibited insurance policies created through the federal health care law from covering abortions, and the fourth redirects proceeds from Choose Life license plates from counties to Choose Life, Inc., which counsels pregnant women.
And in June, the governor signed a controversial bill that defines viability as the stage of development when the life of a fetus is sustainable outside the womb via standard medical measures. It would require physicians to conduct exams before performing abortions to determine if fetuses are viable, and if so, abortions generally wouldn’t be allowed.
Supporters said the measure could prevent abortions around the 20th week of pregnancy, while opponents called it a setback for women’s reproductive rights. Under current law, most abortions are banned during the third trimester of pregnancy.