Abortion rights groups plan ‘historic’ spending on midterms

A coalition of abortion rights groups has announced that it plans to spend $150 million in the 2022 midterm elections “to re-elect abortion rights champions and retire lawmakers who threaten our constitutional right to make our own medical decisions and control our bodies and our lives.”

In a statement on Monday, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America and EMILY’s List classified the amount to be spent as “historic.”

“While each will run its own electoral programs with their own advocacy and political organizations, today’s announcement represents a united effort to aggressively respond to the unprecedented attacks on sexual and reproductive rights and abortion rights across the country and raise voters’ awareness of the lawmakers who are to blame,” the coalition said in a statement. 

The initiative’s goal is to reach tens of millions of voters in the U.S. in states such as Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

“Investments will be made up and down the ballot, from state legislatures, to Attorney Generals and governors, to U.S. Congressional races,” the statement read.

“With so much at stake, we must take bold action to protect and advance reproductive freedom and deliver victories up and down the ballot for reproductive freedom champions. It’s time to send an unmistakable message to politicians who have run roughshod on our freedoms: When you come for our rights, we’ll come for your seats,” NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju said in a statement. 

“Electing lawmakers who will ferociously fight for reproductive freedom is essential to ensuring that we’re prepared for what comes next, and that’s exactly why we’re joining our partners in this critical, unprecedented effort,” Timmaraju added. 

The announcement comes after some GOP-led states recently passed or enacted legislation that prohibits medical professionals from conducting abortions if a woman is six weeks into her pregnancy. 

“The threats to abortion rights are growing and the Republican Party is moving quickly toward their ultimate goal: ending the right for a woman to make decisions about her own body and eliminating access to an abortion altogether,” EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler said in the statement. 

“We stand with our allies as they continue the work to support providers and patients, and our way forward is clear: we are going to replace those who stand in the way of our rights with pro-choice advocates who will listen to the voices of a majority of voters, change these policies and protect our reproductive freedom,” Butler added.