Susan B. Anthony List: smearing Democrats, fudging the facts
The anti-choice Susan B. Anthony List is pumping $1 million – and a bunch of falsehoods – into this year’s election. Their mailer, going out to 2 million voters across the country, tries to connect President Obama and Speaker Pelosi with taxpayer-funded abortions in order to dissuade votes for Democrats.
“Tries” is generous, because it’s simply not true: health care reform doesn’t allow for federal money to pay for terminations. SBA also ran a TV ad against Sen. Barbara Boxer in California, but this campaign is far wider and clearly aims to aid a GOP takeover by targeting 42 House Democrats, including Congs. Suzanne Kosmas of Florida, Debbie Halvorson of Illinois, and Dina Titus of Nevada.
While there’s no question about SBA’s anti-choice stances (or their habit of playing fast and loose with the facts), it’s always interesting to note how the organization gets labeled: “focused on electing women who oppose abortion rights” or “a conservative EMILY’s List.” Heck, the first item of the List’s stated mission is “Elect pro-life women to Congress.” Oh, and they call us “the pro-abortion counterpart to the Susan B. Anthony List.”
Here’s the catch: as Robin Marty points out in RH Reality Check, SBA has a bit of a problem endorsing women. Of the 46 candidates they've endorsed, 16 – or, 34.7% – are men. It gets even worse with Congressional endorsements: men stand at 41%, or, 16 out of 39. How exactly does that fit in with “activating more pro-life women in the political and legislative arenas”? (Again, from SBA’s own mission statement).
Our mission? EMILY’s List is dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women to office. Not only do we proudly state that, we actually back it up! Our endorsements? Women. Every last one.
Democracy is based on healthy debate between opposing sides. But maybe it’s time for Susan B. Anthony List to decide if it’s really about supporting women who agree with their anti-choice agenda, when its actions tell another story.
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