Desperate Bush Seeks to Suppress Hispanic Turnout with Harsh Negative Attack on Choice

NARAL Pro-Choice America: Desperate Bush Seeks to Suppress Hispanic Turnout with Harsh Negative Attack on Choice

10/29/2004 10:23:00 AM

To: National Desk, Political Reporter

Contact: David Seldin of NARAL Pro-Choice America, 202-973-3079

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Desperate to suppress turnout among minority voters, President Bush has recycled with a Spanish translation an attack ad rated as the worst of the campaign by a USA Today focus group, NARAL Pro-Choice America said today.

The ad, titled "Family Values" in English or "Valores Familiares" in Spanish, is now airing on Spanish-language television stations in Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico. It was featured in a September 26 USA Today article ("Voters in Ohio Give Political Ads Thumbs Down"), describing a focus group of undecided voters in Columbus. The focus group participants watched and rated a wide range of ads aired by both presidential campaigns. Of the 15 ads viewed, "Family Values" was rated the worst, with participants citing its harsh negative tone.

Elizabeth Cavendish, interim president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said: "George Bush is desperate in any language. His negative campaign of lies and far-right extremism is coming up short. In a last-ditch effort to hold on to power, Bush is reusing attacks rejected by undecided voters to try to suppress Hispanic votes. President Bush will say and do anything to hold onto power and advance his anti-choice agenda.

Cavendish continued: "Ironically, Bush criticizes John Kerry for a stance that Kerry shares with a large majority of Americans. When it comes to issues like birth control, George Bush is far out of the mainstream."

The "Family Values" ad criticizes John Kerry for several pro-choice stances, including a vote in favor of teaching high school students about emergency contraception -- a position shared by 77 percent of Americans (including 66 percent of Republicans), according to a poll by Peter Hart Research Associates for the Reproductive Health Technologies Project.

A recent poll conducted by Greenberg Research for the NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation found 66 percent of Hispanic women supporting comprehensive sex education, including information about condoms and other forms of birth control, with only 30 percent favoring the "abstinence only" programs for which President Bush has doubled federal funding.