National Pro-Life Group Runs Ad Campaign Praising Sen. Joe Manchin

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, speaks at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, in New York City on June 21, 2016. Drew Angerer/Getty Images/File

A national pro-life group Monday launched a six-figure advertising campaign praising a key moderate Democratic senator for opposing the removal of the legislative filibuster in the Senate.

The Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List said that the organization is spending $200,000 on radio and digital ads thanking Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) for opposing the removal of the Senate filibuster rule, which allows the minority party to have a say in which legislation gets enacted.

“Removing the filibuster in the Senate would pave the way for Congressional Democrats to pass an extreme pro-abortion agenda, such as expanding the size of the Supreme Court and forcing taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand,” the group said in a statement.

The current Senate is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote. The progressives in the Democratic Party have called on eliminating the 60-vote filibuster currently needed to enact legislation, but Manchin has said he does not support the change.

“The pro-abortion extremists now controlling Washington want to eliminate the legislative filibuster so they can force taxpayer-funded abortions and expand the size of the Supreme court, filling it with pro-abortion justices,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, SBA List president, said in a statement.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) speaks during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 16, 2020. Chip Somodevilla/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

In addition, the Biden administration recently announced that it will codify the pro-choice law Roe v. Wade.

“Senator Joe Manchin, who represents the overwhelmingly pro-life state of West Virginia, has been the voice of reason in his party, urging the preservation of the filibuster. We thank him for his leadership and are mobilizing in West Virginia to ensure his constituents can thank him and encourage him to stand strong for their values,” the statement continued.

The SBA’s recent ad campaign is a departure from the group’s 2018 criticism of the West Virginia senator during his reelection campaign when they said Manchin did not share the conservative values of his constituents.

In the 30-second radio ad, the SBA List tells West Virginians to call and thank the senator for this moderate position to protect the filibuster.

“Thankfully, Senator Joe Manchin is standing strong for life, and protecting the Senate filibuster from the abortion extremists,” says a narrator. “Call Senator Manchin today, tell him to keep protecting life and our West Virginia values.”