I hate to spoil the victory party but the right wing army in the war on women hasn't surrendered yet

The anti-abortion rights Susan B. Anthony List is planning a multimillion dollar election-year effort that is already training big money on several incumbent Democratic senators.

SBA List wants to spend between $8 and $10 million this year, much of it aimed at rooting out senators that have not signed onto a current bill federally banning abortions after 20 weeks. The group also plans to take on lawmakers that supported Obamacare, hoping to draw attention to the ongoing debate over whether the law funds abortions.

In an interview on Friday, SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser laid out a strategy that includes $1 million each in states where Republicans hope to beat Democratic incumbents or seize open seats. Targets include Democratic Sens. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas — with more statewide commitments of $1 million to come as races develop.


“We’re already hiring people and doing things in Louisiana, Arkansas and North Carolina,” Dannenfelser said. “And then there’s a whole watch list of states … that could be more relevant, [where] there could be a moment there where it really mattered.”

Georgia and Kentucky — two states where Democrats could be on the offensive — are both on that watch list, particularly if the group feels it needs to defend Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) against Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky.

Dannenfelser described an electoral effort heavy on phone banks and recruiting volunteers in battleground states, but also one that will fund network and cable TV ads as well as social media campaigns.


“The emphasis is on the ground game, grassroots immobilization, communication, boots on the ground … there will also be over-air activity,” she said. “The best use of our money is to make sure we are really communicating directly with the people that we want to vote and who will be volunteering, who will be showing up and being the arms and legs of the staff, the arms and legs of the candidates’ army.”

The group also plans to spend at least $1 million on federal and state lobbying efforts this year. At the federal level, SBA List hopes to get more recruits onto its 20-week abortion bill, sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) with the support of 40 additional Republican senators.

“One of the reasons the pro-life movement has been so successful is that in its political branch, the idea is to make abortion as restrictive as possible and incrementally chip away at it,” Doan said. “Because one incremental policy doesn't seem like a big deal.”

In a 1996 interview with The New Republic, the NRLC lobbyist Douglas Johnson hinted that the goal was just this sort of gradual wearing away of abortion rights, explaining that the term “partial-birth abortion” (as opposed to its clinical term) was dreamed up with the hope that "as the public learns what a 'partial-birth abortion' is, they might also learn something about other abortion methods, and that this would foster a growing opposition to abortion."

It was, in fact, during a 2004 federal trial on IDX that government witness Kanwaljeet Anand, now a professor of pediatrics, anesthesiology, and neurobiology at the University of Tennessee at Memphis, brought up some of the most frequently cited medical support for the 20-week cut-off when it comes to fetal pain.

"It is my opinion that the human fetus possesses the ability to experience pain from 20 weeks of gestation, if not earlier, and the pain perceived by a fetus is possibly more intense than that perceived by term newborns or older children,” Anand said in his testimony. “Anesthetic agents that are routinely administered to the mother during this procedure would be insufficient to ensure that the fetus does not feel pain."

Anand has since turned down offers to testify in abortion hearings. Recently, he also said that a common method for performing abortions after 20 weeks, which involves injecting fetuses with heart-stopping medication, “would be fine, really, from a point of view of fetal pain ... a compassionate way to do it.”

Despite his hesitancy, Anand’s work has been repeatedly cited by pro-life groups agitating for the 20-week ban. These groups point to poll results indicating that most Americans think abortions should not be “permitted beyond the point at which there’s substantial evidence that the unborn can feel pain.”

The problem is, there is no such point.