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For Immediate Release
Contact: Email: media@reproductivefreedomforall.org

New NARAL TV Ad Campaign Hits Sens. Kirk, Johnson, Ayotte, Burr on Obstructing Human Trafficking Bill

Hard Hitting Ad Campaign Will Air Statewide in IL, WI, NH and NC Next Week; New Polling That Shows Senators Actions on Bill Hurt Them at Home

WASHINGTON

Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America released a new TV ad campaign in Illinois, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and North Carolina hitting the Republican senators in those key 2016 Senate races for holding up the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act in Congress over language to ban abortion coverage. The ads will run on Fox, MSNBC and CNN in each state for a week.

You can see the 30-second ads here.

In addition, NARAL released new polling, conducted this week, which shows the senators' position on this bill is out-of-step with voters and hurting their re-election chances.

The poll found:

  • A majority (60-75%) of voters will be less likely to vote for their Senator if they vote in favor of the provision restricting access to abortions for victims of human trafficking.
  • Focusing on restricting abortion within the context of a bill about human trafficking is broadly unpopular.
  • A clear majority (70-80%) of voters in these states support legal abortion.

You can see the full polling memo here.

"It's disturbing to watch these senators put their own ideology ahead of the lives of women who have been through so much already," said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "The bill's clear intention is to help survivors of human trafficking regain control of their lives, yet the first thing these senators want to do is tell them they can't even have control over their own bodies."

A Loyola School of Law study found that:

  • Women who are trafficked are forced to "service" an average of thirteen men a day.
  • Eighty percent of these women report being pregnant at least once
  • Twenty percent report being pregnant five times or more

Hogue continued, "In a country where seven in ten people support legal access to abortion, the obsession anti-choice politicians have with banning abortion is outdated and dangerous."

For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.

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