Fliers Circulated by Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Center Become Issue in Virginia State Senate Race

Wash. Post: Antiabortion pregnancy center figures in state Senate race, by Derek Kravitz:

One brochure boldly states that condoms fail one-third of the time -- by flaws, breaking or deterioration. A nearby diagram of a broken condom shows a small "HIV Virus" particle looming near the spot where the latex ripped. Another flier claims that the "most preventable cause of breast cancer" is abortions.

The literature, until recently circulated by a church-affiliated pregnancy center in Annandale, has become political fodder in the closely watched contest for Virginia's 37th Senate District between Stephen M. "Steve" Hunt, a Republican and former Fairfax County School Board member, and Del. Dave W. Marsden, a first-term Democrat.

Abortion rights and antiabortion groups agree that the information in the fliers is misleading and outdated. Jane P. Fuller, executive director of the Assist Pregnancy Center on Backlick Road, said the pamphlets have been removed.

But NARAL Pro-Choice America and other abortion rights groups are using the brochures as part of a broader attempt to attack so-called crisis pregnancy centers and locally to paint Hunt, a former official of the pregnancy center, as an out-of-touch extremist. . . .