Mainstream Democrats, a new super PAC founded by Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman, is airing a deceptive new TV ad that tries to portray Rep. Henry Cuellar as a supporter of abortion rights when he's anything but. A narrator declares, "[W]ith women's rights under attack from extremists, Democrat Henry Cuellar has made it clear that he opposes a ban on abortion," as onscreen, the spot cites a recent U.S. News article.
It's very much worth digging into that citation, which offers the full context for Cuellar's claims. In a statement he issued after the leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that protects the right to abortion at the federal level, Cuellar struck a very different note than the one his backers want you to hear:
"As a lifelong Catholic, I have always been pro-life. As a Catholic, I do not support abortion, however, we cannot have an outright ban. There must be exceptions in the case of rape, incest, and danger to the life of the mother."
Cuellar has in fact long supported abortion bans. In 2017, he voted in favor of a Republican bill called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act that would have banned abortion nationwide after 20 weeks—which he also voted for in 2015. In 2012 and again in 2013, he voted for the same sort of ban as well, except this time he sought to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks solely in the District of Columbia—an abuse of Congress' power to regulate the city frequently deployed in the service of the GOP's pet projects.
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And as a practical matter, Cuellar does support banning abortion altogether, even without any exceptions, because he was the lone House Democrat to vote against codifying Roe into law last year. By opposing such protections, Cuellar and his fellow travelers will ensure that many states, including his home state of Texas, are able to implement total bans on abortion the moment the Supreme Court issues its final ruling.
It's not yet clear how much Cuellar's allies are putting behind this ad, but Mainstream Democrats recently reported spending $178,000 on direct mail to help the congressman in his May 28 primary runoff against progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros.
Please donate $3 now to help Jessica Cisneros fight back against these deceptive tactics and boot the last anti-choice Democrat in the House.