A misleading robocall in Georgia uses polarizing language about abortion to target Democrats in two key races: the Senate and governor contest.
The Republican Party of Georgia has unleashed a barrage of anti-abortion language in their robocalls urging people to vote for Sen. David Perdue (R) in the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss, as well as for Georgia Governor Nathan Deal in the gubernatorial contest.
One of the anti-abortion calls features a graphic depicting a fetus as the size of a peanut growing inside of a body.
The call’s full text:
A growing number of abortion clinics have started to close their doors in Georgia following the state’s recent legislation banning abortion at nine weeks of pregnancy. The bill passed the state House on May 29th and is now headed to the Senate. The legislation is now in committee. If it passes, the abortion ban will go into effect July 1st, 2014.
This is the third year that the Georgia legislature has come up with new abortion restrictions. The first bill, called HB 481, was introduced last year by then-Rep. Diane Russell. It was signed by Gov. Nathan Deal in July of 2013.
This year, state Rep Mike Hunter introduced HB 516, the Reproductive Health and Safety Act, which is currently heading to the floor of the House. The two-part bill includes a ban on abortions at nine weeks of pregnancy and requires doctors to tell patients about abortions.
The House version of HB 516 will be heard Tuesday. If approved, it would make Georgia the fifth state in the nation to require doctors to provide abortions upon request.
The calls feature this image:
Here’s the full description of the graphic:
This graphic is part of the message from a national anti-abortion group. The image was created by the National Coalition of Abortion Providers (NCAP, a pro-life group) and it’s part of their anti-abortion strategy to influence public opinion and convince people that abortion clinic providers should close. On their website, they show a map of abortion clinics in the United States. The map features red dots representing the closings of abortion clinics in the last three years