New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s lust for abortion rights has effectively killed his chances of ever becoming president of the United States. His failed proposal to allow abortions in New York through term was an act of political suicide.
Not since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973 have more Americans identified themselves as pro-life. And what has Cuomo done? He’s gone the other way. Last year, a Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans (52%) want abortion legal under certain circumstances; 25% want it legal in all cases; and 20% want it illegal in all cases. Cuomo is laying anchor with the 25%.
All the survey data in the last decade show that Americans want abortion to be legal but limited: they want it limited to exceptional cases (e.g., they oppose abortions for the sake of convenience), and they want it limited to the early stages of pregnancy. There is absolutely no demand for late abortions—the evidence is just the opposite—yet this is exactly what Cuomo championed.
Once Cuomo ventures outside the Empire State he will find out—the way his father Mario did—just how out of touch he is with public sentiment on this life and death issue.
If ever there was concrete evidence that pro-women’s organizations have never been interested in women’s rights—save for the right to kill unborn babies—it was the decision by the New York Women’s Coalition to pull its support for Governor Cuomo’s women’s rights bill after it became clear that reference to abortion would be deleted. While the bill passed the Assembly, it was defeated in the Senate due in large part to the efforts of State Senator Jeff Klein, the leader of the Independent Democratic Conference, and Republican Senate co-leader Dean Skelos. The Senate is now prepared to pass the other nine planks of Governor Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Act. It is to be hoped that the Assembly will do the same.
As reported in the New York Times, Cuomo admitted that the Women’s Coalition “concluded that if the abortion component was not included, they did not want a scaled-down proposal.” Furthermore, Democratic lawmakers “also said they would only support a package that included the abortion language.”
The New York Women’s Coalition is not a rag-tag group that represents a few extremist organizations: 850 organizations belong to the coalition. These include the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL), Planned Parenthood, NOW, and the dissident group Catholics for Choice.
Cuomo’s bill dealt with such issues as pay equity, domestic violence, sexual harassment in the workplace, pregnancy discrimination, and human trafficking; all total, the bill enumerated ten women’s rights. But NARAL in particular showed that their primary concern was about abortion. Andrea Miller, President of NARAL Pro-Choice New York, made it clear in the course of the debates surrounding this issue that the organization wanted all or nothing. “It’s simply not good enough to say you’re pro-choice and then refuse the one moment when you have an opportunity to take an absolute, crystal-clear vote,” she said. “You have that moment and you’re going to walk away from that? You cannot call yourself pro-choice.”
Indeed, the New York Times story following the Senate’s defeat of the bill summed it all up with its title: “All or Nothing Strategy on Women’s Equality Legislation Ends with Nothing.”
In short, the Women’s Coalition is now on record of intentionally subverting the rights of women. In other words, women who are beaten by men, discriminated against on the job, sexually harassed in the workforce, and are victimized by modern-day slaveholders, can all take a walk. Unless killing kids shortly before birth is a slam dunk, there is no need to be concerned about so-called women’s rights.
Glad to know the mask is off, once and for all.The New York Women’s Coalition has shown its true colors for all to see. Clearly abortion rights trump all other rights in their eyes.
