Bera Blasts Ose with 'War on Women' Tactic

Democratic Rep. Ami Bera (CA-7) is ratcheting up his attacks on Republican challenger Doug Ose in a new ad, accusing Ose of being against women having access to birth control as well as opposing abortion rights. The text of the attack reads:

Hey, Doug Ose, your statements about birth control? They’re backwards. You’re on record supporting limits to a woman’s access to birth control. What year is this? And when you were in Congress, Doug, you voted anti-choice, restricting a woman’s right to choose again and again. Just another politician who thinks he can tell women how they should handle their private, personal health decisions. Doug Ose, you can’t walk away from that. 

Christopher Cadelago of the Sacramento Bee Capitol Bureau dissected Bera’s ad, and found it deceptive. He wrote that Ose has always been pro-choice, from the time of his first campaign for Congress in 1998.

The Sacramento Bee reports that the only abortions Ose has supported restricting are late-term abortions. Ose’s position is so far left that when he ran against Tom McClintock in a 2008, criticism was leveled at him that he had the lowest “pro-life ratings” of any of the state’s GOP delegation. While on Capitol Hill, Ose even supported legislation to mandate coverage for prescription contraceptives. Ose has, however, stood up for the right of business owners to cite their religion when discussing insurance coverage for employees’ contraceptives.