New York Struggles to Remain in Vanguard of Reproductive Rights

City Limits (Sept. 13, 2016): Reproductive Rights and Today's Primary Ballot, by Joan Malin:

Malin writes, "New York is a place where everyone is welcome and where we believe that everyone deserves access to the resources to achieve their dreams."  In the area of abortion liberty, New York has been in the vanguard.  Abortion was legal here before Roe v. Wade, the state provides Medicaid coverage for abortion services and requires health insurance coverage for birth control.  But the current Senate majority is hostile to reproductive rights and has stymied forward progress.  It has blocked the Women's Equality Act for three years in a row and has not been a friend to measures that would have eliminated barriers to birth control and would have barred employment discrimination on the basis of an employee's reproductive health decisions.  

The good news is that Senators Toby Ann Stavisky and Gustavo Rivera have won in their primary contests against challengers who vowed to roll back reproductive rights in New York State.  Businessman S.J. Jung does not support a woman's right to choose, even in cases of rape and incest.  Fernando Cabrera champions "anti-abortion Crisis Pregnancy Centers that mislead women about their reproductive health care options."  Both Jung and Cabrera have gone out of their way to express their disapproval of equal rights for same-sex couples and gay individuals.   

New York has a rich history of championing reproductive rights, even if no progress has been made in recent years.  With Democratic candidates for Senate like Stavisky and Rivera, come November voters will have a golden opportunity to show their support for reproductive liberty.