Progress Action Fund launched a new ad attacking crackdowns on reproductive rights ahead of an Ohio ballot measure, featuring an elderly Republican congressman in a couple’s bedroom.
The ad begins with a sex scene in which a woman asks, “Do you have a condom?”
The man reaches for the condom in a bedside table drawer, and another suit-covered arm reaches for it as well, shocking the couple.
“Sorry, you can’t use those,” says an older man, clad in a black suit and red tie, while standing beside the bed.
The woman asks who he is. “I’m your Republican congressman. Now that we’re in charge, we’re banning birth control,” he says.
“This is our decision, not yours,” the woman replies, adding, “Get out of our bedroom!”
The Republican congressman says eerily, “I won the last election, I’m not going anywhere. I’m just gonna watch and make sure you don’t do anything illegal.” The ad then ends with a frame of the Republican congressman’s face next to text that reads: “Keep republicans out of your bedroom.”
It urges voters to “vote no” on 8 August, in reference to State Issue 1, which would require proposed amendments to Ohio’s constitution “receive the approval of at least 60 per cent of eligible voters voting on the proposed amendment.” If passed, State Issue 1 would replace a simple majority requirement.
The argument for Issue 1 states that it “protects our Constitution from deep-pocketed, out-of-state interests,” while the argument against it states that “it takes away our freedom by undermining the sacred principle of ‘one person, one vote’ and destroys majority rule in Ohio.”
A number of people have said the amendment is all about preventing abortion access. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose disagreed, “Some people say this is all about abortion.”
Instead, he said, it was about protecting the state from special interest groups: “Well, you know what, I’m pro-life. I think many of you are as well. This is 100% about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution. The left wants to jam it in there this coming November.”
“If you live in Ohio, watch this steamy and horrifying ad and vote against raising the number for ballot initiatives to pass to 60%,” Jill Wine-Banks tweeted.
