Power

Obama Campaign TV Ad Targets Romney’s Pledge to Support Fetal Pain Ban With No Exceptions for Rape, Incest

The presidential campaign has diverted from Bain for a bit to note Romney's lack of support for women's reproductive rights.

The President’s reelection campaign must be trying to increase its lead once again among women voters. President Barack Obama’s campaign team has released a new television ad, and, unlike recent pieces, this one is focusing on what a Mitt Romney presidency would mean for women. Including his support of a law that “that outlaws all abortion — even in cases of rape and incest.”

In response, Romney’s campaign is claiming the ad “mischaracterizes” his positions.

According to ABC News:

Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said the ad egregiously mischaracterizes the Republican candidate’s position on abortion, noting that in a 2011 National Review op-ed Romney wrote that abortion should be allowed in “instances of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.”

Although he did state in the op-ed that he allowed those exceptions, technically the Obama ad is true. Romney has stated that he would push for a federal “fetal pain” bill, which would outlaw all abortions after 20 weeks based on the medically-disproven claim that a fetus feels pain at that stage of gestation. Fetal pain bans that have been proposed and passed so far have included no exceptions for rape or incest.

It’s the support of this ban that is one of the reasons that the anti-choice political group the Susan B. Anthony List eventually came around to throwing their support to Romney after their original pick, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, dropped out of the race. SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser reiterated his position on that ban, as well as their support of his candidacy, in a recent column in the National Review Online just a few days earlier, and encouraged “all Pro-Lifers” to “unite behind Romney” as well.

If elected president, Governor Romney has pledged to advocate for a Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This law, a version of which covering the District of Columbia is currently being considered by Congress, would stop abortions past 20 weeks gestation (nearly the sixth-month mark), the point at which the latest medical research shows the unborn child has the capacity to feel pain. Governor Romney stands for this commonsense, lifesaving legislation that affirms the dignity of women and protects unborn children capable of suffering at the hand of the abortionist’s deadly instruments.

The new ad, called “Troubled,” is below.