Anti-abortion group to hit Hagan with TV ad

The Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List is launching a new ad campaign accusing Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) of holding a “fringe position” on late-term abortion.

The anti-abortion group announced Tuesday that it will spend $100,000 on a television ad buy in the race to replace Hagan with conservative North Carolina state House Speaker Thom Tillis (R).

{mosads}The SBA List works to elect candidates who oppose abortion rights, and its campaign stems from Hagan’s opposition to a bill that would ban abortions at 20 weeks.

The group’s 65-second video spot profiles a couple, Ned and Rebecca Ryun, who describe their daughter’s premature birth at 24 weeks. 

“For those that are advocating late-term abortions, look at my daughter. These are babies. This is human life and we’re their only voice,” the couple tells the camera.

“Kay Hagan supports painful, late-term abortions. She’s too extreme for North Carolina,” a narrator continues.

Ned Ryun is also a conservative activist and the president of Tea Party-affiliated group American Majority.

Hagan is considered one of Congress’s most vulnerable members this cycle, and her seat is crucial for Democrats as they work to keep the Senate.

In response, a bevy of liberal women’s groups are hoping to boost Hagan with the same “war on women” strategy that brought Planned Parenthood a nearly perfect return on its political spending in 2012.

EMILY’s List and Planned Parenthood Votes are planning to spend heavily against Tillis, promising to devote $3 million each to the race and launch aggressive on-the-ground outreach to voters.

The SBA List would not announce how much it plans to commit, but called its small $100,000 campaign an “initial ad buy.”

Hagan’s campaign blasted the SBA List as extreme and out of touch for supporting Richard Mourdock, the former GOP Senate who said in 2012 that pregnancy from rape is “something that God intended to happen.” 

Spokeswoman Sadie Weiner also called the SBA List a tool of the conservative multibillionaire Koch brothers. 

“This ad, from yet another Koch-affiliated group, is meant to distract voters from Tillis’ record of rejecting healthcare for women who need it, passing laws to reduce access to preventive care, and espousing fringe positions like saying the state has the authority to ban contraceptives. Tillis’ record on women’s health pushes the wrong priorities and violates North Carolina’s commonsense values,” Weiner in a statement.

This post wad updated at 5:30 p.m.