Several days ago, Progress Action Fund, which “produces & runs ads to defeat Republicans in swing districts,” came out swinging in Ohio with one of the most hard-hitting political ads we’ve ever seen. Here‘s the ad on YouTube (if you can’t view it below, the previous link also goes to to ad), entitled “Ohio Republicans in Your Bedroom”:
This 30-second ad features a scantily-clad couple in bed, kissing and embracing. The woman asks the man if he has a condom. He reaches for one in a drawer, and all of a sudden another hand grabs it away. It’s a scary-looking old man in a suit, who says:
Sorry, you can’t use those…. I’m your Republican Congressman. Now that we’re in charge, we’re banning birth control.
The woman then shouts at the Congressman:
This is our decision, not yours. Get out of our bedroom!
It’s a jarring ad which then tells voters to “Vote NO on Aug. 8.” This refers to Ohio’s Issue 1 on the ballot in an August 8 special election. Issue 1 would, among other things, make it more difficult to pass amendments to the Ohio state Constitution, by raising the threshold of approval to 60 percent of eligible voters. According to the ACLU, raising this voting threshold is dangerous because (a) it makes it harder for citizens and citizens’ groups to propose and pass constitutional amendments, and (b) needing only 40 percent “No” votes to defeat an amendment essentially gives naysayers (most likely conservatives opposed to change) a filibuster. As the ad indicates, this could give Republicans the power to strike down proposals to cement rights such as abortion, birth control and others in the state constitution.
The ad is also highly relevant outside of Ohio, because Republicans across the country are already talking about banning birth control after they won a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring that there is no longer a constitutional right to abortion. In that decision, Republican Justice Clarence Thomas wrote separately that, in the future, the Court should “reconsider” its previous decisions upholding the rights of married couples to obtain contraceptives, the right to engage in consensual homosexual conduct, and the right to same-sex marriage. Likewise, in Iowa, Idaho and elsewhere, Republican lawmakers are trying to attack birth control by cutting off funding and using other tactics.
And in Ohio, the state at issue here, at least one Republican state representative has said she would consider banning birth control. That is in addition to U.S. Congressional Republicans, such as Ohio’s Steve Chabot, voting against a 2022 Democratic House bill that would codify the right to birth control. The Right to Contraception Act was passed in the Democratic-controlled House in 2022, but then U.S. Senate Republicans blocked it.
In short, the Ohio birth control ad is the type of hard-hitting, aggressive ad that is needed right now, and which Democrats and their supporting groups should be running everywhere for the 2024 elections.
