Dr. Richard Foglesong

Review of Obama ad "The Same"

Aug. 31, 2012

In this blog, I Reality Check an Obama ad saying that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are “the same” where issues of women’s reproductive health are concerned.  The ad began airing soon after Gov. Romney named Ryan his running mate.   

As background, “jobs and the economy” are the top issue with voters, but this issue matters more to men than to women whose political compass often differs from men’s.  The ad aims to capitalize on that fact:  besides rallying the female Democratic base, it seeks to attract support from pro-choice women of all stripes by raising the salience of issues related to contraception and abortion.  

Like most, this ad makes three claims: Quoting Fox News and the New York Times, the ad first says that Ryan—like Romney—would “withdraw all federal funding from Planned Parenthood.”  This claim is true.  Gov. Romney explicitly said so during his primary campaign, and the Ryan budget plan would accomplish this feat.  So yes, their views are “the same.”

Next, the ad says that Ryan “would allow employers to deny women access to cancer screenings and birth control.”   I rate this claim misleading, because Ryan didn’t vote against these healthcare provisions per se.  He voted against requiring religious employers to provide them when the Republican-led House took a symbolic vote on this issue.   For him, it’s a matter of religious liberty.  

This qualification aside, Romney and Ryan agree on this issue, as Romney also believes that religious institutions should not be required to provide employee benefits that violate their faith.  More than that, they would both repeal Obamacare altogether.

Additionally, the ad says “both Romney and Ryan” back proposals to outlaw abortion “even in cases of rape or incest.”  True, Paul Ryan has consistently voted against abortion in Congress, earning a 100% rating from antiabortion groups, and he would allow abortion to save a mother’s life, but not in cases of rape or incest.

The statement is mostly false when it comes to Romney, however.  False because, since 2005, he has carved out three exceptions in opposing abortion.  As reaffirmed in 2009, he would ban abortion except in instances of incest, rape, or when the mother’s life is threatened.

But mostly (rather than completely) false, because Romney has taken other positions that undermine his commitment to preserving these three exceptions.  For instance, he favors overturning Roe v Wade, which might allow individual states to outlaw abortion in all cases, without exception.  And he supports the GOP platform, which calls for "a human life amendment" that would outlaw abortion without explicit exemptions for rape or incest.

So overall I give this ad a mixed rating—from true, to misleading, to mostly false.