The Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC dedicated to the noble cause of electing more Senate Democrats, launched a $2 million ad campaign Monday targeting Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) over the closure of roughly a dozen birthing centers in Maine. The ads argue that Collins helped enable the massive Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act - despite the inconvenient detail that she voted against the legislation. Politics, as ever, is a game of fine print.

The campaign ties Collins's vote to advance the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year to the birthing center closures, a narrative that requires a certain creative latitude. "[President] Trump's Medicaid cuts are forcing labor and delivery units to close in Maine. When there's an emergency, mothers will have to drive an hour or more to the hospital, jeopardizing the life of the baby and the mother," Dr. Peter Millard, a physician from Belfast, Maine, says in the ad. "Susan Collins was the deciding vote to advance Trump's Medicaid cuts, so they can give billionaires a tax break. Every time it matters, Susan Collins caves to Donald Trump."

There is, however, a wrinkle. Collins was among a small group of Republicans who voted against final passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, directly citing concerns about the reductions in Medicaid coverage. Democratic critics counter that she was the deciding vote in advancing the bill initially - a version that did include Medicaid cuts. Former Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner hammered the same point during his campaign. Collins did subsequently vote in favor of amendments to strip those cuts from the bill once it was on the floor, which is the kind of detail that tends to get misplaced in a 30-second spot.

Her supporters and staff have pointed out that even if she had voted "no," Vice President Vance's tiebreaking vote would have advanced the bill anyway, and she ultimately voted against passing it. They also note that the Medicaid cuts included in the bill have yet to go into effect - a fact that does complicate the "closing birthing centers right now" framing. The fact-checking nonprofit PolitiFact called previous criticisms of Collins claiming she "sided with Trump to cut Medicaid" false. So there's that.

Collins's campaign responded aggressively, with the senator taking to Facebook in the time-honored tradition of typing in all caps when annoyed. "I did NOT vote to cut Medicaid. I voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill specifically because of its Medicaid provisions. I warned that the proposed reductions could threaten health care for Mainers and put rural hospitals at further risk," she wrote.

Her statement continued: "MaineHealth has cited low birth volumes and an increasing inability to recruit specialized providers to safely staff labor and delivery units around the state. This has been an ongoing problem for years and did not begin as a result of legislation passed last year. In fact, MaineHealth has called on Maine's Governor and Legislature to help address the workforce, reimbursement, and demographic pressures that have been threatening rural maternity care for years. This is something Troy Jackson should have prioritized as Senate president."

So to recap: a $2 million ad campaign says Collins enabled cuts she voted against, for closures that haven't happened yet from cuts that haven't taken effect, in a state where the underlying problem predates the legislation. Somewhere, a fact-checker is quietly weeping into their coffee.