PRESS RELEASE from Winning Message Action Fund
Oct. 22, 2008

Winning Message Action Fund Exposes McCain’s Dangerous Position on Reproductive Choice
Organization turns attention to critical swing state of Ohio

Today, the Winning Message Action Fund (an issue advocacy organization that educates voters about consequences of the movement to ban abortion) unveiled a hard-hitting advertisement which demands that Senator McCain explain exactly what he envisions will happen if his efforts to ban abortion are successful.

“The McCain/Palin ticket has made clear its opposition to abortion access.  But we know that banning abortions won’t stop them, it will just make them extremely dangerous,” said Kelli Conlin, President of the Winning Message Action Fund.  “We have questions Senator McCain:  will you stand by as states put women behind bars? As good doctors are forced to stop providing abortion care?  If women are forced to return to back-alleys?  What, John McCain, will you do then?”

The reality is that 21 states would move to ban abortion immediately if Roe is overturned and Ohio would be plunged into a divisive battle over the future of legalized abortion within its borders.

Twice in the last three years legislation has been introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives that would outlaw abortion even if a woman’s life was in danger. Under these laws, physicians who provide abortions — even to save women’s lives — could go to prison for up to 15 to 25 years.

Points out Kellie Copeland, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, “These laws do not reflect our state’s values and are the handiwork of extremist politicians.  A recent poll shows that 82% of Ohio voters oppose outlawing abortion; we will not return to the days of back-alley abortions when women died from illegal, dangerous procedures.”

Concludes Conlin, “This campaign energizes and motivates those voters who have allowed choice to fall below their radar.  It is time that we call out candidates at all levels of government who say they want to ban abortion and ask them to answer some serious questions. Because John McCain said it himself: ‘elections have consequences.’  We need to know exactly what those consequences will be for women.”

The “How Much Time” campaign will air on cable and broadcast TV (including The Early Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show) in Ohio from October 25 through Election Day.

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The Winning Message Action Fund is the issue/advocacy arm of the National Institute for Reproductive Health.  The Winning Message Action Fund works to expose the consequences of the movement to ban abortion.  www.HowMuchTime.org