Akin launches new ad in Mo. race featuring sexual assault survivor

Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) launched a new ad in his bid for the Senate featuring two women offering their support for him: a Russian emigrant and a woman who was raped and had an abortion.

In the one-minute spot, supporters Kelly and Zoya speak straight to the camera to explain why they back Akin.

"I'm a single mother — a woman who's had an abortion. I've been raped in my past. The reason I'm voting for Todd, and I'm so proud of him, is because he defends the unborn," Kelly says.

Zoya, who says that she came to the United States seven years ago and has known Akin's family since she arrived, shares that she supports him because he "knows what government's job is, that is, to protect life, not to control life like they did in Russia."

"The reason why I'm supporting Todd Akin is because I love this nation, I love my freedoms, I don't want to lose my freedoms. I don't want the same thing to happen to America as what happened to Russia," she says.

Both women previously appeared in a "Missouri Women Standing With Todd Akin" video, launched soon after Akin made comments that pregnancies in cases of "legitimate rape" are rare because "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," which drew immense backlash even from the Republican Party.

Since then, GOP leaders and outside groups have withdrawn support from the candidate, and until recently he's been forced to campaign without much outside help and few funds. However, on the heels of a weekend poll that showed him just 2 percentage points behind Sen. Claire McCaskill (D), Akin's seen new-found support from outside groups and in the final week, according to his campaign, has more ads on air than McCaskill.

Watch the ad:

---