With the special US Senate election less than a week away, abortion reemerged as a major flashpoint yesterday as Martha Coakley's campaign sent out several activists to champion the Democrat as a defender of women's rights and Republican Scott Brown called on his two daughters to respond. Coakley supporters, appearing at a Boston press conference, bitterly railed against Brown, saying that his political positions were dangerous to women and that he was using 'smoke and mirrors' to obscure his true beliefs and previous record. The primary focus of their attack was his sponsorship of a measure that would have allowed hospital personnel, on religious grounds, to deny rape victims emergency contraception. 'Time and again, Scott Brown has shown that he is willing to compromise, for political gain, the health and well-being of some of the most vulnerable women in Massachusetts,' said Andrea Miller, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. 'And this includes victims of sexual assault.' Brown rebutted such charges with gusto, pointing to a household full of women as evidence that he supports women's rights. His two daughters headlined a press conference yesterday afternoon to call on Coakley to take down a recent ad that highlighted the emergency contraception amendment he filed in 2005. 'Martha Coakley's new negative ad represents everything that discourages young women from getting involved in politics,' Ayla Brown, 21, told reporters at the Parker House downtown. 'And as a young woman, I'm completely offended by that. ... My dad would always stand up for the rights and needs of rape victims. And he's kind, understanding, and he's a very compassionate father.' The back-and-forth came as each campaign released new television ads and as national interest and participation in the race grows. There are discussions among Democrats over bringing in President Obama or Vice President Joe Biden to stump for Coakley in the closing days of the campaign. The national SEIU is taking out a $685,000 ad campaign today on Coakley's behalf, and the US Chamber of Commerce is airing a new ad supportive of Brown's candidacy. Brown also reported raising $1.3 million over 24 hours, collected from more than 16,000 donors across the country through an intensive Web-based fund-raising effort called a 'MoneyBomb.' Brown's photo was also splashed across the front of the Drudge Report, a popular right-leaning website, with a headline, 'Will this man end Dem super majority?' State and national Democrats suggest Coakley still holds a lead, but there are signs that the race is tightening. The Rasmussen Reports released a poll yesterday that had Coakley at 49 percent and Brown at 47 percent. A third candidate in the race, independent Joseph L. Kennedy, had 3 percent, with 2 percent undecided. Coakley held no public events yesterday, just a week ahead of the election, and was scheduled to hold a fund-raiser in Washington last night. Brown accused Coakley of being beholden to special interests after the Washington Examiner reported that of 22 names on the host committee, 15 were federally registered lobbyists who had health-care clients. The fund-raiser, also hosted by the all-Democratic Massachusetts delegation, was held at a Capitol Hill wine bar. Both candidates also took out new television ads over the course of 24 hours. Coakley's ad, released Monday night, accuses Brown of resisting tougher Wall Street oversight and favoring Bush-era tax cuts that favored the wealthy. But it was also drawing ridicule from Republicans because it included a misspelling of the name of the state. The ad says it was 'Paid for by the Massachusettes Democratic Party and authorized by Martha Coakley for Senate. Brown, a state senator from Wrentham, released a television spot yesterday morning blasting Coakley for blasting him. 'By now, you've probably seen the negative ads launched by Martha Coakley and her supporters,' Brown says, as he stands in a kitchen during the 30-second spot. 'Instead of discussing issues like health care and jobs, they decided the best way to stop me is to tear me down.' The camera lingers on a photograph of Coakley with two fellow Democrats: Governor Deval Patrick, who has struggled in recent public opinion polls; and former House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, who is fighting federal corruption charges. 'The old way of doing things won't work anymore,' Brown says in the ad. 'Their attack ads are wrong and go too far.' Coakley, who is trying to become the first female US senator from Massachusetts, has made women's issues a strong component of her campaign. Yesterday morning, she had five surrogates hold a press conference at the headquarters of the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus. Coakley, however, was not at the event. 'He seeks to erode our reproductive rights,' said Christina Knowles, state director for the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women. The 2005 amendment that Brown sponsored in the state Senate would have allowed a physician, nurse, or any other employee to deny rape victims an emergency contraceptive if it 'conflicts with a sincerely held religious belief.' The facility would have had to have someone else who could administer the contraceptive or refer the victim to another facility at no additional cost to the patient. The amendment, which did not pass, was attached to a bill that he ultimately voted for, which required emergency rooms to provide the contraceptives to rape victims. In Coakley's latest ad, a narrator says, 'Brown even favors letting hospitals deny emergency contraception to rape victims.' Brown and his supporters have declined to discuss the underpinnings of his amendment, instead trying to focus on the fact that he supported the overall legislation. He also voted to override a veto by Governor Mitt Romney. 'This is the message: the message is that Scott Brown was behind that legislation and voted for it in 2005,' Angela Davis, cochairwoman of Women for Brown, said yesterday. Brown has also declined to discuss his amendment proposal. 'It's irrelevant; it's a red herring,' he told reporters after Monday night's debate, as an aide cut off further questions. On WCVB-TV last night, he said he could not recall whether he had actually filed that amendment, although Senate records clearly say he did. Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. 