Montgomery County executive plans to lure new businesses with pro-abortion commercials

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - There's backlash over the Montgomery County executive's new plan to run commercials touting local pro-abortion laws as a way to lure new businesses. 

It comes on the heels of last week's Supreme Court decision. But some are saying the move is inappropriate. 

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich tells FOX 5 he's hiring an ad agency to sell the County as an "abortion sanctuary" for both businesses and their employees.

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"It’s all economic development, so if we bring companies here and jobs here, it’s the same kind of outreach we do for any other kind of development," Elrich says. "A lot of times, we wonder what your ‘hook’ is and what your pitch is, and we know what our pitch is here, and we know what people are looking for." 

His Democratic primary opponent David Blair — who called the Supreme Court decision "horrific" — says Elrich has a failed record of attracting businesses like Amazon HQ2, and questions his timing. 

Montgomery County executive bars employee travel to states banning abortions

"Under this county executive’s leadership, we’ve seen the number of Fortune 500 businesses drop to two while Fairfax is up to 11," Blair said. "Progressive values are clearly important and even more so now, but it’s as important we have affordable housing, reliable transit, and training our workforce in careers for today’s jobs." 

The ad campaign could target states like Texas, Florida, and Virginia. While Elrich says the overall message is to lure businesses to Montgomery County where abortion rights are protected, Kris Ullman of the Conservative Eagle Forum says it's inappropriate to use abortion as an economic business incentive. 

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"What’s even more trouble and should bother the residents of Montgomery County is that only 12% of high school students are proficient in math and barely 50% are proficient in reading and if they want to spend money on a campaign, perhaps they should spend money on educating their citizens," Ullman said. 

Elrich faces a tough primary race next month. The Washington Post endorsed Blair for County Executive last week, saying Elrich "mismanaged a $6 billion budget and workforce, subverted its prospects of attracting jobs and prosperity, pandered to his narrow political base, and set the county up for failure."