Scott Brown’s New Woman-Friendly Ad Glosses Over His Anti-Woman Voting Record

By Aviva Shen/Think Progress

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) released a new ad on Friday geared toward moderate Massachusetts voters who are suspicious of Brown’s social conservatism. Brown has been trying hard to paint himself as a moderate pro-choice Republican in spite of his party’s extreme anti-choice positions — and his own voting record.

The ad features a woman claiming that Brown is pro-choice and supports equal pay:

Scott Brown is pro-choice, and he supports a woman’s right to choose. I like that Scott Brown is independent, he really thinks for himself. His record shows that he supports women, he supports families. When my daughters grow up, I want to make sure that they have good jobs with equal pay, and I know Scott Brown will fight for that. I support Scott Brown because I know he wants to get our economy moving forward again. I’m a mom, I have a family, and I know that Scott Brown will fight hard for families.

Though the ad claims “his record shows that he supports women,” Brown’s voting history actually reveals the opposite. The senator has co-sponsored several anti-choice bills, including the Woman’s Right To Know Act, which would force a woman to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion and review pictures and information about her fetus. He supported the notoriousBlunt Amendment –which would allow employers or insurers to deny women any health coverage they morally oppose — and sought to prevent insurers from using any federal funds to cover abortions in the Affordable Care Act. Brown has also voted to defund Planned Parenthood and voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act, in spite of his ad’s promise to “fight for” equal pay.

Brown has tried to distance himself from the Republican Party’s anti-woman platform and asked Reince Priebus to include a rape exception in the GOP’s anti-abortion plank. So far, he has not convinced Massachusetts of his secret pro-choice sympathies; the Massachusetts Right to Life recently announced their support for him as “a senator who votes pro-life.” Beloved Massachusetts boxer Mickey Ward also pulled his support from Brown after discovering his anti-LGBT and anti-union stances. Emily’s List denounced this new ad, accusing Brown of “straight-up lying” and demanding that he “take it down and apologize.”