REPORT: Detailed analysis of dollars, organizations and tactics behind Albuquerque abortion ban campaigns provides lesson for other cities, nation

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REPORT:  Detailed analysis of dollars, organizations and tactics behind Albuquerque abortion ban campaigns provides lesson for other cities, nation

Albuquerque – A new report from PROGRESSNOWNM provides an inside look at the groups, dollars and tactics behind last week’s vote on a 20-week abortion ban, the first of its kind in the country.
Six major national organizations and their affiliates coordinated the vast majority of the $445,000 raised and spent in just two months by five political committees promoting the ban to local

Behind the ban

voters. 

Some organizations, like Operation Rescue, hid their involvement by providing services to affiliated organizations or by ignoring local election laws all together.  PROGRESSNOWNM has filed complaints with the city’s ethics board regarding those unreported efforts.
PROGRESSNOWNM, a progressive advocacy group promoting and defending progressive values in New Mexico, spent months tracking dozens of events by the various groups, monitored TV and radio ads, hundreds of social media posts, more than 20 different direct mail and flier actions and researched finance reports throughout the campaign.
Among the findings:

·      Led by out-of-state based organizations including Operation Rescue and the Susan B. Anthony List and a “usual suspects” list of national conservative mega-donors, proponents raised $445,000 in the two months leading up to the election.  With 38,000+ votes cast, the groups spent more than $11 per vote and came up short.
·      The national Susan B. Anthony list alone spent more than $200,000 in local advertising in support of the ban and provided access to its email list to local groups with whom they coordinated.
·      Operation Rescue and Created Equal, organizations based in Kansas and Ohio, contributed technical IT support and advertising support in the form of graphic mobile billboards but never disclosed reported their involvement in the race.
·      Unlike opponent groups who organized together to defend women’s rights, differences in ideology and tactics divided the opponents causing them to work as much against each other as they did together.

 
The Albuquerque campaign provides a blueprint for other municipalities facing this new organized attack on women at the local ballot box.  In the weeks following the arrival of the Susan B. Anthony List in Albuquerque, the group announced plans to introduce a national ban in Congress, sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). 
Albuquerque voters turned down the measure on November 19th, voting 55-45% against the ban.  Proponents have promised to take the lessons learned from Albuquerque and apply them to other municipalities in the near future.
A new local abortion ban has already been introduced in Valencia County, just south of Albuquerque.