On-again, off-again Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has been raising a lot of hell about Congress's failure to fund Zika prevention and treatment research, even going against his leadership to support the Obama administration's full funding request. Of course, that's a fight Rubio knew he couldn't win. Worse, he voted for the Republican bill that would have kept funding away from Planned Parenthood, and when it comes to fighting Zika now, on the ground, he's standing by his forced birther roots, maintaining his opposition to abortion even for women who know they are carrying stricken, doomed fetuses. He's paying a political price for that opposition now.
NARAL Pro-Choice America is spending $175,000 to air a TV ad in Orlando and West Palm Beach targeting the vulnerable incumbent starting Monday, according to a source familiar with the buy. While the Republican senator has voted for every Zika funding proposal to come through the Senate, the GOP majority has failed to approve new emergency spending to combat the mosquito-borne disease.
Senate Democrats are currently blocking a $1.1 billion measure approved by the House. NARAL says Rubio's vote for that bill, which contains restrictions on women's health care funding, amounts to "putting his agenda ahead of the health and safety of women and families." […]
"Marco Rubio voted against funding health clinics that provide critical care during this public health emergency. And Marco Rubio continues to be against a woman's right to choose an abortion, even if they are infected with the Zika virus," the ad says.
Rep. Patrick Murphy, the Democrat who will unseat Rubio this fall, calls Rubio's anti-abortion stance "extreme." It is. Rubio is hitting back by saying that Murphy's votes against the Republican House bills—poisoned by both the Planned Parenthood funding block and by a provision that would relax Clean Water regulations on the use of pesticides—show that Murphy's "done nothing to break the partisan impasse." Which is a laughable notion on it's face—a Democrat being able to break Paul Ryan's partisan impasse?
Can you pitch in with $3 to help Patrick Murphy force Rubio to keep his promise to leave the Senate?