Anti-abortion group reveals $52M budget to help Trump, Senate Republicans in battleground states

A prominent anti-abortion group rolled out a $52 million budget to help boost President Trump’s reelection efforts and support Senate Republicans in key battleground states later this year.

Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) and its partner super PAC, Women Speak Out PAC, announced Friday that part of the hefty budget will help fund efforts to expand their boots on the ground, mailings and phone calls to voters, and digital ads. The groups said they intend to make 4 million visits to voters overall before election day on Nov. 3. 

The groups will focus on Arizona, Iowa, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin, all key battleground states that will be competitive in the presidential race and host contested Senate races. 

“The stakes of this election could not be higher. Democratic contenders for president are lining up to support abortion on demand, and even infanticide, and declaring war on even the most modest pro-life policies. Meanwhile, President Trump has governed as the most pro-life president in our nation’s history,” said Mallory Quigley, national spokeswoman for SBA List and Women Speak Out PAC’s independent expenditure campaign.

No presidential candidate has endorsed infanticide, the practice of killing a baby after it is born, though the refrain has emerged as a chief GOP talking point after Senate Democrats blocked legislation last year that would penalize doctors who fail to “exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion.”

The campaign will focus on door-to-door visits targeting “traditional Democrat voter groups,” which, according to SBA List and Women Speak Out PAC, “may simply be unaware of the Democrats’ support for extreme pro-abortion policies.” The groups added that canvassers have already spoken with 460,000 voters in the eight swing states. 

SBA List did not clarify exactly how much of the $52 million would go toward campaign activities.

The group has long been a staunch ally of Trump, with Marjorie Dannenfelser, SBA List’s president, serving as the national chairwoman of the 2016 Trump campaign’s Pro-life Coalition.

Friday’s announcement sets the stage for a pitched battle over abortion through Election Day, with Planned Parenthood also launching this week a $45 million electoral campaign focused on battleground states.

The national fight over abortion has been revived in recent months after several conservative states passed abortion restrictions, many of which have drawn swift court challenges from abortion-rights groups.

The advocates of the restrictions say they hoped to trigger a legal battle with the goal of bringing a case before the conservative-majority Supreme Court that could try to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that first made the procedure legal.