Cynthia Nixon knocks Cuomo as late in protecting abortion rights while he calls for special session

July 09--Gov. Cuomo called on Republicans in the state Senate to return to Albany and codify Roe v. Wade's abortion rights protections into state law Monday, while primary challenger Cynthia Nixon ripped him as being late to the game.

"He's put his finger in the wind and realized too late that if one is going to call oneself a progressive one has to fight like a progressive," Nixon said Monday at a press conference in Queens. "You shouldn't only govern and fight like a Democrat right before the Democrat primary, you should do it after the election too."

But Cuomo said this summer is finally the time to get such a law -- passed by the Assembly but shot down by Republicans who control the State Senate -- passed, with President Trump picking a Supreme Court justice expected to be supportive of overturning the landmark 1973 abortion rights case.

"We have been trying to pass a reproductive health act in the state of New York. We have a Senate that is controlled by Republicans who drank the Trump Kool-Aid," Cuomo said. "One of the reasons they opposed it, they said, well, we have Roe vs. Wade in law and there's no way anybody would ever think of overturning Roe vs. Wade."

"These were the Republican senators just a couple years ago telling me it's unimaginable that anyone would try to overturn Roe vs. Wade," he continued. "Well, they elected someone who wants to do the unimaginable, which is to take us back before 1973."

Cuomo signed an executive order requiring insurers in the state cover over-the-counter emergency contraception, in addition to all other contraceptive drugs and products for women approved by the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the dispensing of a year's worth of contraceptives at once without co-insurance, co-pays or deductibles, his office said.

But codifying the protections of Roe vs. Wade will require the Legislature to return to Albany and vote on it, he said.

"The bill is on your desk," Cuomo said. "You either come back and protect a woman's right to choose and respect a woman's reproductive health rights, or the voters are going to say to you in November, 'You're with Trump? Well, you're fired from the New York State Senate."

Still, Cuomo said he would not force a special session, saying the Senate could simply gavel in and gavel out on the taxpayer's dime without taking action. The Senate refused to vote on the same legislation during the session -- when the three branches of government typically engage in horse-trading over such issues as they engineer the state budget and end-of-session legislation packages -- but Cuomo argued he had more leverage now.

"Now is the ultimate leverage," Cuomo said. "We're in the middle of the legislative session there are a lot of issues, and people aren't really focused on exactly what issues are happening and exactly what issues aren't happening, and it's a blur."

The Supreme Court pick means people will be "singularly focused" on maintaining the protections of Roe vs. Wade.

"Now it's binary. If you support a woman's right to reproductive health, you come back and pass the bill," he said.

Nixon, meanwhile, was speaking in Jackson Heights, where she and state senate candidate Jessica Ramos endorsed one another. Ramos is challenging State Sen. Jose Peralta, who had been a member of the now-defunct Independent Democratic Conference whose allegiance with Republicans many on the left blame for the stalling of progressive priorities -- including the failure to pass prongs of the Women's Equality Act that would codify Roe v. Wade in New York State law.

Ramos, a former staffer to Mayor de Blasio, sought to tie Cuomo to Peralta and the IDC.

"They've had the time and political environment to get the work done and they haven't," Ramos said.

Susan King, cofounder of No IDCNY, called the failure to pass laws codifying Roe v. Wade "deeply disturbing" and said the new push is "too little, too late."

Nixon, too, argued Cuomo and the IDC were "one and the same" -- and, in speaking about the state's "outdated" reproductive health laws, spoke about her own mother's abortion, which came before the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

"It was really important for her to talk to me about it so that I will understand how critical reproductive choice is," Nixon said.

As first reported by the Daily News, Cuomo will visit the districts of Senate Republicans considered vulnerable in November elections to push them to return to Albany to vote on the issue, and will launch an ad blitz on the subject.

"I'm going to call them all out by name. All out by name," he said. "What they are saying to the people of this state is, 'I support overturning Roe v. Wade and I'm not doing anything about it. That is the statement they're making. And I'm going to make sure everybody knows the statement they're making."

Cuomo's campaign declined to comment on Nixon's remarks but noted that the governor had proposed a state constitutional amendment to codify Roe v. Wade in state law in January. Like the legislative efforts to codify Roe, it did not pass the State Senate.

The cross-endorsement between Nixon and Ramos is the latest in a series of endorsements Nixon has picked up from candidates, largely women, challenging incumbent Democrats in primaries. She and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez endorsed one another a day before Ocasio-Cortez felled Queens party boss and number-four House Democrat Rep. Joseph Crowley in a shocking primary win -- which has galvanized other women running primaries from the left.

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