Its a real Hail Mary.
A group trying to kill a pro-abortion New York state ballot proposal is making an appeal to voters with a big NFL ad buy during Bills, Jets and Giants games over the next two weeks.
Vote No On Prop 1 is spending over half a million dollars on TV spots ripping the proposed expansion of the state constitution’s bill of rights, which they argue will also allow illegal immigrants to vote and trans women to play girls sports, a rep for the group told The Post Thursday.
Paperwork filed with the FCC shows the group is paying $75,000 for a single 30-second spot on WUTV, the FOX affiliate in Buffalo.
The rep said they’re shying away from advertising during the World Series for now because the spots were too costly.
It remains unclear who is funding the campaign by Vote No On Prop 1, but conservative attorney Bobbie Anne Cox is listed as the group’s chair.
FCC paperwork shows a firm run New York Republican pollster John McLaughlin is working for the group to help organize the effort.
The group has been waiting on the sidelines until earlier this week when it released an ad highlighting how Prop 1’s vague language could lead to such consequences as voting rights for illegal immigrants.
Critics have also said it could be used to allow trans women to compete in boys sports and allow kids to undergo gender reassignment surgeries without parental consent.
“New Yorkers are being blindsided by this dangerous amendment, so thankfully these ads are out there to let people know what Prop 1 could do. Prop 1 is a Pandora’s Box that New Yorkers really don’t want to open,” Coalition to Protect Kids NY, a separate anti-prop 1 group, spokeswoman Ayesha Kreutz wrote in a statement to The Post.
The proposed amendment’s supporters frame it as the Equal Rights Amendment and argue it would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.
The text of Prop 1 — which will be on the Nov. 5 ballot — says it would add “anti-discrimination provisions to State Constitution. Covers ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity and pregnancy. Also covers reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”
A source close to New Yorkers for Equal Rights, a group pushing for the amendment, said they expect to spend a massive $2.4 million in ads and mailers supporting Prop 1 ahead of election day.
“Nearly 70 percent of New Yorkers support Prop 1 to protect our rights and freedoms, including the right to abortion – and no amount of lies or stunt advertising from the anti-abortion opposition will change that,” a spokesperson for the group wrote in a statement to The Post.
A recent Siena College poll showed 69% respondents indicating they’d likely support Prop 1 at the ballot box.