A television ad released July 16 by the Bush campaign attacks John Kerry’s priorities on “issues that affect our families.” The ad correctly cites two Kerry votes, on parental notification of teenage abortions and emergency “morning-after” contraception.

This ad oversimplifies two fairly complicated matters, a common failing of 30-second TV spots. Overall, it accurately highlights for voters a deeply divisive issue on which the two candidates disagree fundamentally: John Kerry is a steadfast supporter of abortion rights – even for teeneagers – and the president is a strong abortion foe.

The announcer asks “Are these priorities yours?” It’s a fair question. But to answer it voters may wish to have more information than this ad provides. Our analysis offers some further background.

Analysis: The Bush ad is called “Family Priorities.” The overall message accurately reflects that Kerry is a consistent supporter of abortion rights, even in the case of teenagers. It’s a stark point of disagreement between the two candidates. For each of the past 20 years, Kerry has received a perfect scorecard from the National Abortion Rights Action League with a rating of “100 percent.” For the past several years he’s also gotten a “0 percent” rating from the National Right to Life Committee whose political action committee endorsed President Bush for re-election.

The ad says “Kerry voted against parental notification for teenage abortions.” Kerry did vote against a “parental notification” amendment in 1991 offered by Republican Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana. That measure would have required that parents or guardians be notified 48 hours in advance of any abortion on a pregnant daughter under age 18 performed by any organization receiving federal family-planning funds. The measure passed the Senate 52-47, mostly along party lines. Kerry was one of 42 Democrats who opposed it.

The Coats amendment had narrow exceptions, requiring that parents be notified unless the pregnancy “resulted from incest with a parent or guardian,” or if a physician determined that an emergency abortion was necessary to save the life of the mother.

Kerry voted for an alternative measure that would have allowed for much broader exceptions. The measure Kerry supported would have allowed a physician to perform an abortion on a teenager without notifying the parents if the doctor determined that she “is mature enough and competent to provide consent” herself, or if the doctor determined that notifying the parent or guardian would lead to abuse or “is not in the best interest of the minor.” The Kerry-supported measure also would have allowed the abortion to proceed without notification to parents if an “adult family member” gave consent. That family member could be an aunt or grandparent – or even a older brother or sister over age 18.

Neither the Coats amendment nor the Kerry-backed measure ever became law: Both later were dropped in conference with the House.

The ad shows a girl, apparently of middle-school age, boarding a yellow school bus as the announcer says, “Kerry even voted to allow schools to hand out the morning-after pill without parents’ knowledge.”

Actually, this vote had little to do with “parents’ knowledge,” but Kerry did vote in favor of allowing schools to offer emergency contraception to teenagers, something done in relatively few places. Experts say that such pills can, in some cases, be given to students without knowledge of parents, though the legislation in question was silent on that point.

Kerry’s vote, in 2000, was to kill an amendment proposed by Republican Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina to bar the use of federal funds “for the distribution or provision of postcoital emergency contraception” to anyone under age 18 in an elementary or secondary school.

The so-called “morning-after pill” can be taken up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse to stop implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus. Anti-abortion groups oppose its use. Wendy Wright, spokesperson for the Concerned Women for America, put it this way: “Implantation is simply the process by which new life gets nutrition; so it causes the death of that new life.”

Kerry was among 35 Democrats who voted to kill the Helms amendment, but the motion failed 41-54 and the Helms amendment itself went on to pass the Senate by voice vote. Its actual effect would have been limited: Only 180 school-based clinics in the U.S. actually offered emergency contraception to students at the time, according to a Congressional Research Service report quoted by the San Antonio Express News in 2001. In any event, the Helms amendment later died in a House-Senate conference, and never became law.

The Kerry campaign responded to the Bush ad by saying he actually supports “common-sense” parental notification laws. But the Kerry news release made no mention of two key exemptions for which Kerry voted: allowing a 19-year-old sibling to give consent to an abortion in place of a parent, or letting a physician determine that it is not in the “best interest” of a pregnant daughter to inform the parents of the abortion. Whether such broad exemptions constitute “common sense” or not is, of course, a matter of opinion with which abortion foes disagree strongly.

Kerry also defends his vote on the morning-after pill as favoring the right of local governments to decide school policy. His news release said, “John Kerry believes parents have more control over local school districts and voted to protect their ability to spend money as they choose.”

Kerry’s campaign news release also said the morning-after pill “does not induce an abortion” but merely “prevents a pregnancy before it occurs,” another opinion contrary to that of abortion opponents.

Analysis provided by FactCheck.org, a service of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.