EMILY's List Launches Campaign Against Nev. Congressional Candidate Heck

EMILY's List is launching a two-week television ad campaign in Nevada that portrays Republican House candidate Joe Heck as hostile toward women's health issues, Politico reports. EMILY's List, which supports female candidates who are in favor of abortion rights, is backing Heck's opponent, Democratic incumbent Rep. Dina Titus. The ad is produced through Women Vote!, an independent expenditure of EMILY's List.

According to Politico, the race between Titus and Heck is "one of the most competitive House contests" this election cycle, with a mid-August Mason-Dixon poll showing the two candidates in a statistical tie of 43% for Titus and 42% for Heck. A "significant offensive" against Heck could give Titus a boost in the campaign, Politico reports.

The new ad attacks a vote Heck made while serving in the Nevada state Senate against a bill that would have required health plans to cover the human papillomavirus vaccine, which prevents some forms of HPV that can cause cervical cancer. The ad states that Heck "actually voted against requiring insurance companies to cover the vaccine" and "said women wouldn't need it if they did not engage in risky behavior." The ad continues, "This from a man who graduated from medical school. ... If we can't trust Heck with our health, can we trust him with our future?"

The ad campaign is "precision-targeted" toward women ages 18 through 49, Politico reports. It will air on TV shows and websites where young Nevada women are likely to see it, including during MTV's "Teen Mom" and "Jersey Shore," on the Internet TV site Hulu, and during TV shows like "Grey's Anatomy," "30 Rock," and "Real Housewives of New Jersey." A simultaneous campaign will run on Facebook, with ads reading "What the Heck?" and "Heck: Bad for Our Health."

EMILY's List spokesperson Jen Bluestein Lamb said the group "will do everything we can to ensure voters know the truth and get out to vote" (Burns, Politico, 9/8).

Associated Press Fact Checks Anti-Health Reform Claims

Several Republican candidates and their supporters are airing campaign ads attacking the federal health reform law (PL 111-148) and the Democratic candidates who voted for it, the AP/ABC News reports in a fact check of such ads. The ads "often resor[t] to exaggeration and omission to make their points," including claims regarding abortion, the AP/ABC News reports.

For example, radio ads by AUL Action, the legislative arm of Americans United for Life, claim that three House Democrats who voted for the health reform law -- Reps. John Boccieri (Ohio), Christopher Carney (Pa.) and Baron Hill (Ind.) -- "voted for taxpayer-funded abortion." The ads also call the law "the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded abortions ever."

However, the AP/ABC News reports that an executive order signed by President Obama after the bill's passage reaffirms that the reform law prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion coverage.

AUL argues that Obama's executive order could be reversed and that courts "could interpret" the law as permitting federal funding for abortion services. Such situations "are hypothetical, and the trend is in the other direction," the AP/ABC News reports. For example, HHS announced in July that the high-risk insurance pools created under the law are prohibited from covering abortion except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman (Kuhnhenn, AP/ABC News, 9/8).


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