A pro-choice organization publicly supported by President Obama joined a list of progressive groups that have made public references to former Republican Missouri Rep. Todd Akin in recent weeks in order to portray even moderate GOP politicians as anti-women.
NARAL Pro-Choice America sent an email to supporters last week comparing recently defeated Republican Massachusetts Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez to Akin, the infamous 2012 Missouri Senate candidate whose comments on “legitimate rape” were widely disseminated by Democratic political candidates around the country to suggest the Republican Party was engaged in a “war on women.”
NARAL’s email praised Democratic Senator-elect Ed Markey while painting Gomez, who is widely considered to be a moderate Republican, as an extremist.
On the stump, Gomez described himself as a “green,” “pro-gay marriage” Republican who believes in immigration reform and gun background checks. Gomez said he opposed 24-hour waiting period for abortion and would only vote for a Supreme Court nominee who supported abortion rights.
NARAL, however, portrayed Gomez as an anti-abortion extremist.
“Gabriel Gomez’s opposition to Obamacare and uninformed positions on such key issues as the Blunt amendment, which would allow your boss to deny your birth-control coverage, and mandatory delays for abortion care, proved he wasn’t ready for primetime,” wrote NARAL.
“For the same reasons Missouri voters rejected Todd Akin, the people of Massachusetts recognize that this Senate seat is too important to fall into the hands of someone who won’t stand up for women,” the NARAL email continued.
As The Daily Caller reported, the pro-Obama nonprofit advocacy group Organizing for Action, assembled from the remnants of the Obama 2012 campaign, recently tied comments made by Republican Rep. Trent Franks to Akin.
“You know, before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidences of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” Franks said in a June House Judiciary Committee hearing, at which he discussed his bill to limit abortions to 20 weeks.
“Women made their voices very clear last year when it came to the extreme positions that some elected officials took on women’s health. But that hasn’t stopped conservative politicians from trying to repeal Obamacare, block the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, and push an agenda that uses terminology like ‘legitimate rape,’” Organizing for Action national director of issue campaigns Lindsay Siler wrote to supporters in an email, referencing Akin.
Franks later said that his comments were “taken out of context,” and his bill passed the House by a 228-196 vote. The legislation, however, is not expected to pass the Senate.
Gomez himself seized on Franks’ comments during the campaign, calling the Arizona Republican a “moron” who “proves that stupid has no specific affiliation.”