The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a new ad Friday that takes aim at vulnerable Arizona Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani over his support for an appropriations bill that included a provision to ban sales of an abortion drug through the mail and retail pharmacies.
The DCCC is attacking Ciscomani for supporting the measure despite running on a platform of abortion being left for states to decide. His support for the agriculture appropriations bill, which called for restricting the sale of mifepristone, opened the door for the DCCC to peg him as an "anti-abortion extremist."
The 52-second ad shows an interview Ciscomani did in Arizona, during which he said the mifepristone provision was a line item in a very large bill.
"When you look at these specific items that you're talking about, they're part of huge bills that when you vote for the bill, yes, there's a lot of things in there that end up being that line item," Ciscomani said.
Ciscomani supported the spending bill, which ended up getting derailed in part by Republicans over the mifepristone restrictions. Republican Reps. Marc Molinaro, Anthony D'Esposito, and Mike Lawler of New York and Nancy Mace of South Carolina voted against the bill.
"Leadership knew that this was going to be a problem, and yet here we are," Mace said in September, highlighting a problem of the GOP trying to pass its spending bills with poison pills like abortion attached to it.
The deadline to pass the agriculture appropriations bill has been delayed until Jan. 19.
Ciscomani, who represents a district that President Joe Biden won in 2020, was named the eighth most vulnerable Republican by the National Journal in October.
Further, Democrats are emboldened on the issue of abortion in the aftermath of ballot measures supporting reproductive rights that passed in key states last month.
"Hell-bent on banning abortion nationwide, Juan Ciscomani cannot masquerade as a moderate anymore. The DCCC will continue to hold Ciscomani accountable for his extreme and dangerous record from now until Election Day," DCCC spokesperson Justin Chermol said in the release of the video.
Arizona Democrats are seeking to get a ballot measure for 2024 that would enshrine abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy in the state constitution.