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Conservative commentators are teeing off at an ad campaign depicting a world in which birth control is banned and condoms are in short supply.
Truth Revolt/Youtube
Right-wing media outlets are up in arms about an ad campaign, produced by NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, depicting couples unable to have sex due to a condom shortage caused by GOP senatorial candidate Cory Gardner.
In one ad, a couple appears under the covers, apparently about to have intercourse, but a groping hand comes out from under the blankets and finds only empty condom packages. Then you see a sour-faced man looking at the camera and a women, half covered, arms-crossed, drumming her fingers on her right arm.
In another ad, a man disappoints a woman when he returns empty-handed from condom shopping, blaming Gardner's birth-control ban.
Why the shortage? The radio, TV, and online ads present a world in which U.S. Senate candidate Gardner—who could give Republicans a Senate majority—has been elected, a federal "personhood" bill co-sponsored by Gardner has been passed, and common forms of birth control, like IUDs, have been banned, causing a rush on condoms.
Gardner's stances on birth control and abortion have been at the center of the heated Colorado race throughout the fall.
John Sexton at the right-wing online site Breitbart.com called the "war-on-womeny" advertisement a "contender" for the "worst ad of the 2014 election cycle," and he gave it a market-oriented critique:
[E]ven if we grant the stupid premise here, would condom makers be unable to meet the extra demand for their product? How long would it take them to ramp up production? I don't know exactly but I suspect the answer is not very long. So this is basically a dystopian future which will last about a week until the market meets the demand.
Syndicated talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh weighed in, saying, "You know, I joked not long ago—and how many times have we joked the Democrats would eventually claim Republicans are trying to outlaw sex, and, lo and behold, this is what this is trying to say."
The ads are targeted at young voters, whose turnout is key to a victory over Gardner by pro-choice Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.
At Hotair.com, "AllahPundit" said:
I'm surprised that NARAL thinks he'd leave condoms alone; if the GOP's goal, as more excitable feminists assure themselves, is to keep women pregnant and out of the work force, it makes no sense to leave condoms on the shelves after the pill has disappeared. Maybe NARAL figured that a simple double-standard critique was more effective.
Guy Benson at the conservative Townhall.com wrote this about the "abortion zealots" at NARAL:
NARAL doesn't quite paint a picture of Gardner banning [condoms], too–but he'd surely try, right? If he fails in outlawing condoms, perhaps he'd personally trek from one drug store to the next buying every Trojan in sight with dirty Koch brothers money.
Polls show the race between Gardner and Udall, which could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate to be tied, will come down to Election Day get-out-the-vote efforts.
2014 Elections, Abortion, Access to contraception, Contraception, Cory Gardner, Male condoms, NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, Republicans, Sen. Mark Udall, Sexual Health, Sexuality education
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