New York GOP challenged on abortion rights on Roe anniversary

NEW YORK — Democrats are seizing every opportunity to remind voters which party seeks to keep curtailing abortion access.

The 51st anniversary Monday of Roe v. Wade, now overturned, is their latest chance.

“It’s crystal clear to me that the GOP is fully committed to a nationwide abortion ban,” Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) said in an interview. “They’re continuing to even more aggressively pursue that, literally choosing a speaker of the House that authored the bill for a nationwide abortion ban. And that would certainly affect New York.”

Abortion rights are more literally on the ballot here this November, with a state-level Equal Rights Amendment — the New York Equal Protection of Law Amendment — being put to a vote.

Democrats hope the measure will boost turnout against vulnerable House Republicans, all of whom voted last Thursday for two bills seeking to steer pregnant women away from abortions. And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and party leaders repeatedly tie Republicans — moderate, far-right and in between — to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is unabashedly opposed to abortion and spoke Friday at the March for Life in Washington.

But whether reproductive rights will be a winning issue in a blue state where a majority supports them remains to be seen.

“Immigration, crime and inflation are immediate voter concerns for New Yorkers — ahead of an issue already enshrined in state law — because they are living the hellish nightmare inflicted on them by Joe Biden and Kathy Hochul every day,” National Republican Campaign Committee spokesperson Jack Pandol said in a statement.

Backing up that case is an Emerson College Polling/PIX11 poll ahead of the special election in Nassau County and Queens that finds just 4 percent of voters in the district view abortion access as the most important issue. Immigration and the economy top the list at 26 percent and 22 percent, respectively.

Ryan’s Republican opponent in the Hudson Valley, Alison Esposito, in a statement cited the same issues as the NRCC as priorities, calling the focus on abortion “political pandering.”

Abortion access could be more of a flashpoint in the Ryan-Esposito race than others in the state, especially because Ryan won his 2022 special election by leaning into the right to choose as a freedom that should be protected.

Esposito has said she believes abortion should be “very rare” and legislation should expand “options to choose life.”

Ryan predicted “there will certainly be a political price to pay” for swing-district Republicans who last week backed the bills impacting information for pregnant students and funding for pregnancy centers.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee accused the lawmakers they’re targeting of marching toward a nationwide abortion ban days ahead of Roe turning 51.

Reps. Anthony D’Esposito and Nick LaLota of Long Island and Rep. Marc Molinaro of upstate New York stressed in statements to POLITICO that they oppose a federal abortion ban.

A spokesperson for Rep. Mike Lawler of the Hudson Valley said of the bill pertaining to students: “The deeply personal choice these young women are confronted with should be respected, regardless of what that choice is.”

Neither bill has a chance in the Democratic-led Senate. But both give the DCCC and its candidates another foothold in the fight to protect abortion rights.

Long Island Democrat Laura Gillan, who is challenging D’Esposito, labeled him an extremist for voting to “use taxpayer dollars to fund anti-abortion counseling services that do not provide adequate healthcare information.”

D’Esposito’s campaign spokesperson said the lawmaker will always support giving women “information on available pregnancy assistance resources so they can make the best decision for their personal circumstances.”

The spokesperson said D’Esposito rejects the extremes, not just a nationwide abortion ban but late-term abortions as well.

A version of this story first appeared Jan. 22 in New York Playbook. Subscribe here.