Southern exposure

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—When the North Carolina state legislature stripped Planned Parenthood’s state funding during a midnight vote in 2012, the reaction from the nation’s largest abortion provider was swift: Officials at Planned Parenthood bemoaned the loss of an estimated $200,000.

When Planned Parenthood realized Sen. Kay Hagan—a Democrat from North Carolina—faced a close election that could tip the U.S. Senate into Republican control, the group’s response was decisive: In an effort to support Hagan’s reelection, Planned Parenthood’s political action committees plan to spend at least $3 million in North Carolina.

That’s a fraction of what the group’s political entities plan to spend overall in the 2014 midterm elections: Planned Parenthood officials say they expect to pass the $18 million mark in one of their largest-ever campaign blitzes.

In North Carolina, the blitz aims to topple Thom Tillis—Hagan’s Republican opponent and the state’s House speaker, who supported the 2012 vote to defund Planned Parenthood.

In early October, the race was a toss-up, but the battle lines were clear: Pro-abortion groups are spending enormous sums in North Carolina and a handful of other key Southern races to promote pro-abortion candidates, even if it often means avoiding the unpopular subject of abortion.

Take EMILY’s List: The organization dedicated to electing pro-abortion women has dedicated at least $3 million to the Senate race in North Carolina—a state where 500,000 more women are registered to vote than men.

Over the last three decades, EMILY’s List has become a powerhouse of political activism for pro-abortion candidates: Since its founding 29 years ago, the group has raised more than $405 million. In 2012 alone, the group raised more than $51 million.

Less than eight weeks before the election, the group’s political action committee had paid for two pro-Hagan advertisements in North Carolina, but neither ad mentioned abortion or contraception. Instead, they focused on education and equal pay.

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, EMILY’s List was a top financial supporter of Alison Grimes, the Democratic candidate in a tight Senate race against Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell. In Georgia, where Democratic candidate Michelle Nunn is running against Republican David Perdue for an open Senate seat, EMILY’s List spent $1 million on a single television ad to run in the Atlanta market. (ABC News reported it was the largest single outside expenditure in the state to date.)

The Atlanta ad doesn’t mention abortion: It focuses on a gender discrimination suit female employees brought against Dollar General for claims of unequal pay during Perdue’s tenure as CEO of the company. (Dollar General settled the suit in 2011.)

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, says the absence of abortion in the pro-abortion group’s ads is conspicuous: “This is a sign of a new reality for them.” That reality has emerged in polls showing Americans growing more pro-life in some areas: For example, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll last year found a plurality of Americans support restricting abortions after 20 weeks.

For pro-abortion groups, highlighting abortion could galvanize voters for their opponents, especially in some Southern states, said Dannenfelser: “If you are a true believer in one of the [pro-abortion] organizations, you can’t be happy about the fact that your core issue has to be buried.”

If EMILY’s List is burying the abortion issue in some of its political advertising, the group is straightforward about its agenda on its website. A list of “the seven most common lies about abortion” posted on the site calls crisis pregnancy centers “fake clinics run by opponents of abortion,” and claims the centers are “well-known for lying to clients in order to convince them not to seek abortion care.” One of the purported “lies” on the list: “Abortion is psychologically damaging to women.”

Planned Parenthood has focused more of its efforts on a massive ground game: In North Carolina, the group aims to talk to more than 400,000 voters by Election Day through a combination of phone calls and door-to-door visits.

In a web posting for a political event in Raleigh, N.C., the regional organization told supporters: “The plight of women and LGBT people are one and the same. … Join us to raise money to punish lawmakers who supported Amendment 1 [which protected marriage as between a man and a woman] and anti-choice legislation.” The national organization—which receives more than $540 million in federal funding each year—offers abortion services to women and hormone treatment for transgendered clients.

But Planned Parenthood isn’t the only group with a ground game. Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List says her group plans to spend $10 million this year—much of it on the midterm elections. The group will spend at least $3 million on races in North Carolina, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Dannenfelser knows pro-abortion groups outpace her organization’s funding abilities, but says SBA has 420 workers in the three states, and has already knocked on about 250,000 doors since April.

She’s optimistic about the success of pro-life candidates, and says a pro-life majority in the Senate could produce substantial results, such as banning most abortions after 20 weeks through the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. “That would be the biggest policy change since Roe v. Wade,” she says.

In June, the group’s political action committee began rehearsing that message in North Carolina, with an ad featuring a couple talking about their premature daughter, who was born at 24 weeks. “These are babies,” the mother says. “This is human life. And we are their only voice.”