However, the abortion rights group continues to defend its ad and is conducting an aggressive damage control effort by sending a rebuttal to the press and supporters. FactCheck.org, which concluded the NARAL ad is "false", writes,

NARAL has been circulating a rebuttal widely to reporters and by email to many of our readers even before they sent it to us, and we received a number of requests for our response.

Keenan asserts in the letter that

every factual statement made in NARAL Pro=Choice America's ad is completely accurate and supported by objective documents. The ad is not "false."

FactCheck.org responded,

After considering NARAL's arguments, we stand by our judgment that their ad is false. The message contained in the juxtaposition of words and powerful images is that Roberts condoned the mayhem being shown on screen, which even Ms. Keenan has stated is untrue. We are not retracting our article. Instead, it is NARAL that is withdrawing its ad.

While Keenan's hypocritical statements are certainly troubling, Emily Lyons, the person who appeared in the commercial, also defended NARAL, stating to the Associated Press Friday that the ad is "confusing, but not false." [HT: Michelle Malkin]

"We knew what we were getting in to," Lyons said about making the commercial. "We just didn't know it would hit a nerve like it did."

FactCheck notes that Nancy Keenan herself said during the Aug. 8 news conference announcing the ad: "I want to be very clear that we are not suggesting that Mr. Roberts condones or supports clinic violence. I know he said he finds bombing and murder abhorrent."

Yet the ad conveys the opposite, showing pictures of a bombed clinic and a bombing victim while saying that Roberts supported a clinic bomber and violent fringe groups and that he excuses violence.

However, Lyons told the AP she sees nothing wrong with connecting Roberts to those who condone violence.

The admission by Lyons that NARAL "knew" what they "were getting in to" by connecting Roberts to those who condone violence is a striking contrast to Keenan's assertion that the group is not "suggesting that Mr. Roberts condones or supports clinic violence.

NARAL's number is up and even supporters are admitting it.

A New York Times op-ed columnist writes, "I was once pro-choice and a contributor to Naral. Now I'm pro-choice but anti-Naral."

HT: ProLifeBlogs.com