Planned Parenthood Action Fund Endorses Obama, Releases Ad Targeting Romney

Planned Parenthood Action Fund announced its endorsement of President Barack Obama while targeting Mitt Romney in its first major ad campaign of the 2012 election cycle on Wednesday. The $1.4 million ad buy will emphasize what the political arm of the women's healthcare organization called "the stark contrast between President Obama as a champion of women's health and Mitt Romney as an opponent of women's health" in an official statement.

The first ad, titled "Out of Touch," opens with the former Massachusetts governor's controversial Planned Parenthood statement from last March. "When Mitt Romney says, 'Planned Parenthood, we're going to get rid of that,'" the narrator says, "Romney is saying he'll deny women the birth control and cancer screenings they depend on." The ad also touches on the subjects of abortion and equal pay for work, and closes with the narrator calling Romney "out of touch and wrong for women."

"This is just the beginning," Dawn Laguens, the group's executive vice president, told The New York Times. "This is a very small down payment on what we intend to do to make sure people are very clear where the candidates stand."

The ad will run through June 19 in three key swing markets: West Palm Beach, Fla., Des Moines, Iowa, and Northern Virginia, as well as in Washington, D.C.

The Romney campaign is expected to launch its own series of attacks focused on how women have fared under Obama's leadership.