Emily’s List, the pro-abortion group that only supports the most extreme pro-abortion women for Congress, has expanded the list of targets of pro-life members it hopes to defeat in the 2012 elections.
After initially naming five members it wants to see defeated, Emily’s List added four more today — including Reps. Bob Dold of Illinois, Frank Guinta of New Hampshire, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, and Steve Stivers of Ohio. The abortion advocacy group has put them “on notice” and launched an Internet advertising campaign targeting them.
“There is significant buyer’s remorse surrounding these freshman Republicans,” EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock claimed in a statement. “They told voters they would make job creation their No. 1 priority. Instead, they’ve relentlessly pursued an agenda that strips women of their rights and freedoms, and takes away their opportunities to keep themselves healthy and raise healthy families.”
As was the case last time, Emily’s List curiously targets both pro-life members of the House of Representatives and those with mixed records. While the other three voted pro-life twice this session of Congress by supporting the repeal of Obamacare and voting to de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business, Dold did not side with pro-life advocates on the de-funding vote.
The initial set of targets for defeat that Emily’s List announced earlier tin the month included four lawmakers who have voted pro-life: Minnesota Rep. Chip Cravaack, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, Nevada Rep. Joe Heck and Florida Rep. Allen West. But the list also includes Rep. Charles Bass of New Hampshire, who had a mixed voting record on abortion issues when he was in Congress the first time and only has a 50 percent record this time around. While Bass pleased pro-life organizations with his vote to repeal the Obamacare law that contains abortion-funding provisions and rationing concerns, he voted against the Pence Amendment to revoke taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Emily’s List talked about why these members are the first up for defeat: “First, despite short tenures, they’ve already amassed appallingly anti-woman, anti-family records. And second, there is major Democratic female talent waiting in the wings.
In New Hampshire, 2010 candidate Ann McLane Kuster will challenge Bass again next year. West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel will run against West a second time around in 2012, and former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick will take on Gosar in a rematch. All three of the candidates are extremely pro-abortion in keeping with Emily’s List’s requirements that all supported candidates be Democratic women who oppose any limits on abortions — including stopping taxpayer funding or limiting late-term abortions.
The recruitments appear to be the reason the pro-abortion group is targeting two members with mixed voting records.
In addition to the $2.5 million Emily’s List funneled directly to candidates in 2010 and the $38.5 million it raised for all candidates last election in indirect donations, the organization provides staff, campaign help and other logistical support for the pro-abortion candidates it backs. However, if it wants to see pro-abortion candidates elected, Emily’s List will have to perform better than it did in the 2010 election. Emily’s List was apparently so distraught about losing the elections that it removed its election tracker off its web site the day after the pro-life landslides last year.
“Yesterday was a difficult day” for the pro-abortion movement, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards admitted in the opening of an email to supporters of the abortion business the day after the elections.
“Despite some bright spots in important races — and the resounding defeat of an anti-choice ballot initiative in Colorado — the House of Representatives is now in the hands of dangerous politicians,” she said. “There’s no getting around it: the results of yesterday’s election are truly alarming.”
