NYS Political Chaos Hurts Women

For the past week, we've been watching the political circus that has become our state government, glued to our computer screens for the unfolding story. But there's another story that hasn't yet been told.

While you saw two men cross the aisle, I sat in the New York Senate chamber and saw three years of hard work and real coalition-building in the service of women's health go up in smoke. While you watched the lights go out in the Senate chamber, I watched the state go dark on reproductive rights.

Because last Wednesday, the Reproductive Health Act -- landmark legislation to codify Roe vs. Wade in New York -- was scheduled to be voted upon in the Senate. NARAL Pro-Choice New York and other advocates had commitments from 34 senators, across party lines, to pass a clean, amendment-free bill.

With passage of this legislation, every woman in New York would have been assured that her fundamental right to choose abortion would be protected. Critically, the Reproductive Health Act would also have clarified that a woman would be allowed to have an abortion if her health or life was endangered. The bill, which has been loudly debated for three years, was going to be voted on quietly and respectfully so that each senator could fully vote his or her conscience.

But two days earlier, the Republicans -- with the help of Sen. Pedro Espada and Sen. Hiram Monserrate, both Democrats, ostensibly -- engineered a coup that took down the pro-choice Senate leadership and attempted to reinstate the same anti-choice Republicans who've been blocking pro-choice legislation for 40 years.

This maneuver appears to have effectively derailed the bill -- ironically, as both Monserrate and Espada are co-sponsors of the Reproductive Health Act.

One would think that Monserrate, of all people, might want to make women's issues a priority. One would think Espada, whose health center serves low-income women, might want to make women's health a priority. One would think that Sen. Dean Skelos, who really ought to be noticing the national trend away from Bush-era extremism, might want to make women's issues a priority.

Women's health and rights matter in New York. Polls have repeatedly shown that nearly three quarters of New Yorkers (across all party lines and demographics) support the Reproductive Health Act.

Yet the anti-choice Republican leadership has maintained a stranglehold on the Senate, kowtowing to fringe interests. The behavior of Skelos reveals the lie behind his so-called coalition and its claim of bipartisanship and reform. New Yorkers thought they had pro-choice leadership in the state Senate, a decision that Skelos and his cronies are now effectively rejecting at their peril.

Women in New York have held a powerful role in swinging elections toward Democrats and moderate Republicans. No statewide elected official in over a decade has been anti-choice. You simply do not win in New York by taking that position.

Regardless of who leads the Senate in the coming weeks, we call upon legislators of both parties to come together and pass a clean Reproductive Health Act, without larding it up with amendments that could compromise women's health.

The Reproductive Health Act is ready. Women are waiting. Let's finish the story.

Written by Kelli Conlin for the Albany Times Union 6/16/2009
Kelli Conlin is president of NARAL Pro-Choice New York.