A new flier being distributed in the final days of the Massachusetts Senate race portrays Attorney General Martha Coakley as a threat to unborn children and thrusts the issue of abortion even deeper into the electoral fire.
Paid for by Mass Citizens for Life Political Action Committee, the piece urges voters to "Save The Babies!" and "Vote Scott Brown" on January 19. Coakley, the anti-abortion group alleges, "supports using your tax money to pay for abortions," "supports minor girls getting abortions without their parents knowing," and "supports Partial Birth Abortion."
A Democratic source who provided a copy of the flier to the Huffington Post said it was being distributed in churches around the state on Sunday. The piece reflects a growing breakdown of the already contentious Senate race on traditionally hot-button medical care issues.
This past week, the Massachusetts Democratic Party put out a mailer even more brutal than the one above, in which it accused Brown of wanting hospitals to turn away rape victims.
"1,736 WOMEN WERE RAPED IN MASSACHUSETTS IN 2008. SCOTT BROWN WANTS HOSPITALS TO TURN THEM ALL AWAY."
That attack was derided by Brown and even neutral observers as out-of-bounds. The Mass Citizens for Life Political flier attacking Coakley, likewise, has the potential to harm the candidate it's designed to benefit -- in part because the abortion debate is not solid turf for Brown's campaign.
On Sunday, the state senator took some heat from fellow conservatives for being "confused" over the Senate health care bill's abortion policies. Brown has not always been a darling of the anti-abortion movement.
In 2004, Mass Citizens for Life refused to endorse Brown because of his support for Roe v. Wade. And less than two weeks ago, Brown declared during a debate hosted by WTKK-FM, that while he was "against partial-birth abortions" and for "a strong parental notification law," he continued to believe that "Roe v. Wade is the law of the land."