A super PAC that supports former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has been doing terribly in the polls before Iowa, released an ad that recalls the case of Terri Schiavo. Her husband called the 30-second spot “disgusting.”
The ad was created by Right To Rise and is being run in South Carolina. It briefly shows an image of Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose life was at the center of a political firestorm during the ‘90s and early ‘00s. Michael Schiavo battled her parents, arguing that she would not want to be kept alive in a vegetative state. Bush was governor of Florida at the time and he sided with Schiavo’s parents. In 2003, Florida passed “Terri’s Law,” which gave Bush the ability to order that Schiavo be kept alive. However, it was later ruled unconstitutional and Michael Schiavo removed his wife from life support in 2005.
The super PAC is bringing up the case now because they believe it shows that Bush is a strong social conservative and pro-life.
“It is simply disgusting that Jeb Bush and his super PAC would exploit my wife’s tragedy for his crude political gain,” Michael Schiavo said in a statement to BuzzFeed. “Shame on Jeb Bush.”
Michael Schiavo added that including the image of his wife showed that he “learned nothing” from the case.
“He’s proud of the fact that he used the machinery of government to keep a person alive through extraordinary artificial means — contrary to the orders of the court that were based on the courts determination, made over six years of litigation, that doing so would be against her wishes,” Michael Schiavo said. “What the campaign video shows is that if he ever got his hands on the power of government again, he would do the same thing again, maybe next time to your family.”
MSNBC notes that this isn’t the first time Bush has brought up the Schiavo case while campaigning. He told the Faith And Freedom conference audience that he “stood on the side of Terri Schiavo” in June.