A Big Win For Reproductive Rights!

Whew!!!!  Kathy Hochul was elected Governor of New York State!  This win is terrifically important for so many reasons--Abortion Rights is only one of them.  For many years Democratic politicians reliably defended Abortion Rights but were criticized for shying away from the word "Abortion" and portraying abortion as a tragedy most women resorted to with great reluctance.  

Many Progressive voters took Abortion Rights for granted and gave the politicians who went out on a limb supporting Abortion Rights no credit.  Roe v. Wade kept Abortion safe and politicians could be judged on other criteria.  Independent voters could ponder many issues and discount Abortion--it was not really an issue.  They did not consistently support candidates who supported Abortion Rights.

Dobbs changed all that.  Overnight Abortion was made illegal or virtually unobtainable in about 1/2 of the US.  The soothing rhetoric of the Republican Party--"it will be returned to the States to decide" was washed away as we saw a 10 year old rape victim have to travel out of her state for an abortion, women miscarrying denied appropriate medical care, and Republican politicians rush to create Federal laws to make Abortion illegal throughout the US.

They thought we weren't paying attention!

Kathy Hochul embraced Abortion Rights and made it part of her platform as did other Democratic candidates.  This was more remarkable given that she is from conservative Buffalo and grew up in a large Irish Catholic family.  She and other candidates were criticized for this by the pundits--"Talk about crime, inflation, the economy" "Voters don't care about abortion"

The hate mail I received after participating in an ad for Kathy Hochul said (besides that I was a vile murderer) that her opponent did not have the power to change NYS laws around abortion so Abortion Rights were not a reason to vote for her.

Turns out--VOTERS DO CARE ABOUT ABORTION RIGHTS!  They voted overwhelmingly to support Kathy Hochul and rewarded her for her progressive record on Abortion Rights and her embrace of the issue!