A little-known Texas political group is generating US national headlines with a new abortion ad targeting Governor Greg Abbott.

The political action committee, known as Mothers Against Greg Abbott, released a satirical video advertisement Monday that criticised the governor’s anti-abortion policies. The video portrayed a doctor telling two patients, a pregnant female with her male partner, that their baby would die shortly after birth due to a brain abnormality.

The doctor then calls Abbott using a wall phone and proceeds to ask the governor what decision to make regarding the termination. “Yeah, that’s gonna be a no,” the doctor says in the ad after getting off the phone with Abbott. “Best of luck to you.”

The video struck a chord nationally, with the advertisement picking up traction on Twitter with nearly five million views after political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen tweeted it. Even before the US Supreme Court overturned the federal right to an abortion, Texas had some of the strictest abortion laws in the country. Now, the state completely bans it.

Formed in February, Mothers Against Greg Abbott has released several other video ads attacking conservative policies enacted by Texas lawmakers in the past year, including the crackdown on the teaching of critical race theory in schools, loosening gun control by allowing people to carry firearms without a permit and investigating the parents of transgender children.

Cecile Richards, the daughter of former Texas Governor Anne Richards who once headed Planned Parenthood, starred in two videos. The PAC formed after a Texas mother became outraged that Abbott wasn’t enforcing mask mandates in the fall of 2021. She began protesting and eventually gained support of others.

The group has raised close to US$107,000 this year through June 30, according to filings from the Texas Ethics Commission. It is made up of Texas mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles and grandparents, according to its website.

Incumbent Abbott is running for re-election against Democratic candidate and underdog Beto O’Rourke on Nov 8. Polls suggest a narrowing race race in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the Uvalde school shooting, with Abbott in the lead by the mid-single digits.

 - Bloomberg