VIDEO: Progressive group challenges GOP to stand up for life

A progressive health care advocacy group has released a new ad that questions the reaction of tea party members at a Florida presidential debate and wonders if the 2012 candidates will take a stand against such extremes.

The ad, which is embedded below, mixes tea party rally, campaign and debate footage. Sponsored by Protect Your Health, a group that also operates the Let Him Die? website, the ad’s narrator wants to know: “Will Republican candidates listen to the extremes in their party on health care — or the American people?”

During the CNN/Tea Party Express debate in Florida last week, moderator Wolf Blitzer present a scenario involving a young, uninsured man who contracted a serious illness. Blitzer wanted to know if the man should be left to die if he couldn’t pay his medical bills for an intensive care unit.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul said the larger community could step in to help with medical expenses. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann opted to attack recent U.S. health reform instead of answering the question.

The audience, comprised largely of the tea party members as debate sponsors, however, clearly voiced their opinion, verbally and through a show of applause, that the man should be left to die.

Protect Your Care has scheduled the ad to run Thursday through Sunday in the Orlando media market, which coincides with the Thursday night debate sponsored by Fox News and Google. The group also plans to continue to draw support for their cause of protecting Medicare and Social Security in the Sunshine State.