The Planned Parenthood Action Fund has launched a six-figure ad campaign in a last minute push to support Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton just three days before the Iowa caucuses, the group announced Friday. The campaign includes two 30-second television ads and website homepage takeovers for two Iowa newspapers, the Cedar Rapids Gazette and the Des Moines Register, according to The Washington Post.
"There's too much at stake for us to take a back seat in this election. Every single leading Republican candidate would strip health care from millions across the country -- blocking patients from seeking services at Planned Parenthood, banning safe, legal abortion and even ending insurance coverage for birth control," Deirdre Schifeling, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement, according to Politico. "Hillary Clinton is someone who won't back down from this fight -- she's made it clear that fighting for women's health and reproductive rights is a top priority."
She added: "At the end of the day, she's the one we trust to go head to head with the extreme anti-abortion politicians hell-bent on rolling back the progress we've made for women."
"Our country is at a crisis point for women," one ad says, according to The Hill. "If the top Republican candidates get their way ... access to safe and legal abortion? Gone."
The boost comes from Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the advocacy wing of the women's health organization, as Clinton is in a statistical tie with Bernie Sanders in Iowa, according to several polls, after holding a substantial lead just weeks ago. In recent polling, Clinton leads Sanders by 2.5 percent -- 46.8 to 44.3 percent-- according to recent averages compiled by RealClear Politics. Martin O'Malley is in a distant third with 4.3 percent.
Planned Parenthood endorsed Clinton for president earlier this month, making it the first time the organization has endorsed a primary candidate. "The reason we're endorsing her today -- the reason why hundreds of people across this country got together -- is because Hillary Clinton is a longstanding champion of women's health and women's rights and not just planned parenthood: equal pay, access to birth control, access to safe and legal abortion," Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said at the event endorsing Clinton, TIME reported.
