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Democrats are launching a new TV ad targeting Pennsylvania Republican Mehmet Oz, focusing on abortion.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's latest ad targeting the celebrity doctor features a Pennsylvania physician discussing his experience in the time before the Supreme Court's landmark Roe vs. Wade decision guaranteeing the right to an abortion. The Supreme Court overturned that decision earlier this year.
"When I was in medical school, abortion was not yet legal. So young doctors were trained to treat victims of back-alley abortions," the doctor says in the ad, shared first with NBC News.
"Too often, women died. I thought those days were long behind us. But not so, with Mehmet Oz," the doctor says.
When the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, Oz tweeted, "Roe was wrongly decided. Abortion laws should be left up to the American people and their elected representatives. I look forward to supporting pro-life legislation that saves innocent lives in the U.S. Senate." He also said at a May town hall that abortion is "murder" at any stage.
Oz expanded on the issue in a recent interview with NBC News, “I don’t want any federal rules limiting what states do with abortion ... It should be up to the states.”
The new ad comes as Democrats across the country are focusing on the issue of abortion just three weeks away from Election Day. The 30-second spot is part of a $3 million buy from the DSCC's independent expenditure arm.