Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Scott Walker defended his anti-abortion views in a new television ad released at the same time Monday that a national abortion-rights group announced its own spot saying Walker needs to "just leave women alone."
The dueling ads demonstrate an intensifying effort to win over female voters in the tight governor's race, with just a month before the Nov. 4 election.
The Emily's List ad, its first of the campaign, features a woman identified as a nurse practitioner, wearing a white lab coat with a stethoscope around her neck. She cites Walker's signing of a law requiring that abortion doctors have admitting credentials at nearby hospitals and that women get an ultrasound before having an abortion. The ad also refers to Walker's opposition to abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
"Look, this is one of the toughest decisions a woman has to make," the woman identified only as Meg says. "It's not up to politicians like Scott Walker. Scott Walker needs to get out of my patients' private lives, out of my examining room, and just leave women alone."
The ad, which the group posted online Monday and which is slated to begin airing Tuesday, does not mention Burke.
A spokeswoman for Emily's List did not immediately return a message seeking more information about the woman featured in the spot.
Walker also released a new ad, which his campaign said was running statewide, in which he talks directly to the camera with no music in the background or other images on the screen.
"I'm pro-life. But there's no doubt in my mind the decision of whether or not to end a pregnancy is an agonizing one," Walker says in the spot. "That's why I support legislation to increase safety and to provide more information for a woman considering her options."
He ends the ad by saying that reasonable people can disagree on the issue, but his priority is to "protect the health and safety of all Wisconsin citizens."
Walker, when asked about the Emily's List ad during a campaign stop in Sun Prairie, dismissed it as part of an attack by an outside group.
Walker said much of his record will appeal to women voters, including income and property tax breaks, and increasing funding for domestic abuse shelters. He also noted that graduation rates in K-12 schools are up, along with ACT college admittance test scores.
"When people hear the facts, not just the attack ads from groups outside the state of Wisconsin, you'll see we've got a positive record," Walker said.
Emily's List, a group that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, has said it plans to spend $1.5 million on television ads for Burke this month. It spent $3.5 million on ads to help get U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin elected in 2012.
Polls had shown Walker and Burke nearly even from May until last week, when the latest Marquette University Law School poll showed Walker with a slight lead of 5 points. The poll's margin of error was 4.1 points.
But the gender gap was huge, with Burke holding a 14-point advantage among women and Walker favored by men by 28-points.
___
Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sbauerAP
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
