A controversial antiabortion measure that roiled Virginia and the nation two years ago has reemerged as an attack in a competitive congressional race in the Washington suburbs.
A new ad from John W. Foust, the Democratic nominee for the open seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R) , paints his Republican opponent as an extremist who supported a bill in the state legislature that would have required an invasive procedure known as a transvaginal ultrasounds for some women seeking abortions.
“Barbara Comstock wants to make abortion illegal, even in cases of rape and incest, just like the right-wing Republicans in Congress,” says the narrator, a well-dressed middle-aged woman sitting in a darkened home. “They want to overturn Roe v. Wade — so does she. . . . Barbara Comstock even voted with right-wing Republicans to require women seeking an abortion to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds. That’s all I need to know.”
Reproductive rights could become a key flash point in the race for Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, a diverse region stretching from the wealthy and well-educated D.C. suburbs to more rural enclaves in the Shenandoah Valley. Foust’s campaign hopes voters in this swing district, particularly women, will be turned off by Comstock’s conservative record on abortion.
Comstock has positioned herself as a problem-solver, and she has minimized her views on abortion, which she did not deny, as largely irrelevant.
“I’m not running for the Supreme Court — I’m running to be your congressman,” she said at a recent debate, arguing that Roe v. Wade would not come up in Congress.
“This ad is the sign of a desperate and losing campaign,” said Johanna Persing, a spokeswoman for Comstock’s campaign. “These are the same old desperate, tired attacks that Frank Wolf’s and Barbara’s losing opponents have engaged in for years and the voters have rejected.”
She added that Comstock supports exceptions to abortion bans in cases of rape, incest and danger to the life of the mother.
The bill that requires ultrasounds before an abortion passed out of the Virginia House of Delegates, where Comstock currently represents portions of Fairfax and Loudoun counties, in 2012. But Democratic lawmakers in the state Senate seized on the potential invasiveness of the procedure. The vast majority of abortions take place in the first trimester of pregnancy, when a fetus is too small to be detected by a “jelly on the belly” ultrasound. Thus, Democratic lawmakers realized, an ultrasound using a vaginal probe would be required.
The legislation quickly ignited a national firestorm, sparking massive protests at the Virginia Capitol and jokes on late-night television. Former governor Robert F. McDonnell (R) pushed for an amended version that specified only abdominal ultrasounds would be required. That bill passed and became state law.
Foust’s ad will run on broadcast television and cable.
