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Part of Women are Watching campaign, Ads Hold Dan Sullivan and Thom Tillis Accountable for Their Anti-Women’s Health Records

WASHINGTON, DC — Planned Parenthood Votes is going on the air with ads in two key Senate races (NC & AK) today as part of theWomen are Watching campaign to make sure voters know where the candidates stand on women’s health. The ads are a direct response to candidates across the country that have gone to great lengths to duck, dodge and deny their positions on women’s health.

“Anti-women’s health candidates are finally recognizing that their positions are deeply unpopular with women across the board. Why else would they be tripping over each other to duck, dodge and deny their records and positions on women’s health,” said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president, Planned Parenthood Votes. “Our message is clear: women are watching and they won’t be fooled. Women’s health is not an abstract concept or a ‘social issue’ to be dismissed — it is a basic economic reality for women in their daily lives.”

You can watch the North Carolina TV ad here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6qjTlmqb5A&feature=youtu.be

You can listed to the Alaska Pandora radio ad here: https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/elections-politics/congressional-scorecard/#/alaska/536

North Carolina: A new TV ad featuring a Planned Parenthood Votes volunteer will run in North Carolina as part of a $500,000 buy in the Raleigh media market. It points out that Thom Tillis would ban safe and legal abortion and that his recent calls to make some birth control available over-the-counter could force women to go back to the days of paying up to $600 a year. Emma Akpan, the volunteer featured in the ad, calls attention to Thom Tillis’ history of attacking Planned Parenthood and the preventive services like lifesaving cancer screenings and birth control that Planned Parenthood health centers provide to one-in-five women in her lifetime. Volunteers like Emma from Raleigh are fired up after the North Carolina state legislature, under the leadership of Thom Tillis (speaker of the House), has worked to limit access to birth control, Planned Parenthood, and safe, legal abortion.

Alaska: Pandora radio ads will run in Alaska and highlight Dan Sullivan’s agenda for abortion and birth control. The narrator says, “Wish you could skip this ad? Don’t like the intrusion? I get it. But now you know how Alaska women will feel if Dan Sullivan is elected to the U.S. Senate. Sullivan wants the government to control what Alaska women do with their bodies. He wants to ban nearly all abortions and let bosses decide whether we have access to affordable birth control. This ad’s intrusion is just 30 seconds. Sullivan’s could last 6 years.  Stop the intrusions. Stop Dan Sullivan.”

The North Carolina and Alaska ads come on the heels of a digital ad buy last week in New Hampshire showing Scott Brown hiding in a bathroom to avoid questions about his support of Hobby Lobby; a $400,000 buy in Colorado debunking Cory Gardner’s over-the-counter plan for birth control; and a $450,000 TV buy in Iowa featuring real women reacting to Joni Ernst’s support of so-called “personhood” efforts that would ban abortion and could interfere with decisions about birth control.

Their tactics are not surprising, considering how deeply unpopular their positions are with women. In North Carolina, Kay Hagan is leading Thom Tillis by 19 points among women. In Alaska, Mark Begich is ahead with women voters by an 11 point gender gap; in New Hampshire Scott Brown is trailing women’s health champion Jeanne Shaheen by 14 points among likely women voters; and in Iowa Joni Ernst is trailing Bruce Braley by 13 points among womenThis trend is similarly reflected in Colorado where Mark Udall has a 15 point advantage among women. It’s no wonder that a recent report issued by top conservative strategists concluded that women voters regard the GOP as “intolerant,” “lacking in compassion,” and “stuck in the past.” 

Planned Parenthood advocacy and political groups are running their largest ever political campaign, with volunteers already knocking more doors in North Carolina than were knocked nationwide in the entirety of the 2010 election cycle. On what is expected to be a critical year for turnout, volunteers like Emma in North Carolina are fired up and talking with their communities about why this year’s election is critical when it comes to women’s health and rights.

“This election will have a profound impact on North Carolina women and their families. That’s why I am proud to volunteer alongside other Planned Parenthood Votes supporters to make sure people get out and vote and send a clear message to candidates like Thom Tillis that you can’t win the support of women if you’ve spent your entire career attacking our access to basic health care. These are health and economic issues and they matter to women like me. We need elected officials like Kay Hagan at all levels of government that will stand up for a woman's ability to make our own health care decisions — without politicians like Thom Tillis and his allies getting in the way,” said Emma Akpan, the volunteer featured in the North Carolina ad.

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Planned Parenthood Votes is an independent expenditure political committee registered with the Federal Election Commission.

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