Naral Endorses Spitzer For Governor
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Calling Attorney General Eliot Spitzer “the one and only one we can trust to defend a woman’s right to choose,” the president of the New York chapter of the abortion-rights group Naral yesterday announced the group’s endorsement of his bid for governor.
At New York Law School, the president, Kelli Conlin, along with supporters and students greeted Mr. Spitzer with cheers when he accepted the endorsement.
Religious and conservative groups were not surprised by the announcement, but worry Mr. Spitzer will send the wrong message to women.
“Women should not be hearing the message ‘abortion on demand,'” the acting vice president of government affairs with the Family Research Council, Tom McClusky, told The New York Sun. “Women who are pregnant and alone need help. The answer is not always abortion.”
The Family Research Council, a strong opponent of abortion rights groups, supports public policy that values human life and upholds the institutions of marriage and the family.
Only a day prior to Naral’s endorsement of Mr. Spitzer, his Democratic opponent, Thomas Suozzi, announced a plan to reduce abortions in the state. As part of his three-year initiative, the Nassau County executive plans to give out $1 million in county grants to groups including Planned Parenthood and Catholic Charities to help promote abstinence, birth control, adoption, and housing for unwed mothers.
Naral responded to the initiative with a statement: “President Bush is already pumping millions into abstinence programs that have been shown not to work. Tom Suozzi should know better and not join the Bush administration in putting taxpayer dollars into programs that fall short of what our teens need.”
Mr. Spitzer said yesterday that if he is elected governor he plans to make abortion safe by ensuring there are adequate doctors and safe reproductive health facilities, and protection for those who deliver reproductive health services.
Mr. Spitzer said he wants to “keep abortion legal by doing all we can at the state level to protect a woman’s fundamental right to control her reproductive health.”
