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Faso steadfast on opposition to abortions

BY ERROL A. COCKFIELD JR | Newsday Albany Bureau Chief

June 8, 2006

New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is seen after a fundraiser at the Glen Oaks Country Club in Old Westbury. (Newsday / Karen Wiles Stabile / February 15, 2006)

ALBANY - When Republican gubernatorial nominee John Faso was a freshman legislator, he rose on the Assembly floor to give an impassioned speech opposing the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. A skilled debater, Faso delivered the equivalent of a sermon.

He called Roe v. Wade "a black mark upon this country." He compared abortion foes to "the latter-day abolitionists after the Dred Scott decision." And he said Roe v. Wade was an example of how "science has thrown to lie the notion that you can have abortions up to six full months of gestation."

Now that Republicans have thrown their full weight behind his candidacy, Faso's record - particularly his stance on abortion - is in the crosshairs of Democrats and the abortion rights groups supporting Democratic front-runner Eliot Spitzer, who favors abortion rights.

"We will pull out all forces to make sure the pro-choice candidate is elected," said JoAnn Smith, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Nassau County, whose parent has endorsed Spitzer.

Faso's comments on the Assembly floor came in 1987, but his abortion stance has remained unequivocal.

If elected governor, he said, he would submit a budget that restricts Medicaid funding of abortions to cases of rape, incest or when a mother's life is in jeopardy. If the Legislature challenged him, he has said he would veto such funding.

"I have long held the position, and I still do, that taxpayer spending on abortion should be limited," Faso, who lives upstate in Kinderhook, said. "That's a position that many New Yorkers agree with."

One of the fears in Republican circles about Faso's candidacy was that the former Assembly minority leader - a Catholic who also opposes gay marriage - would not appeal to moderates in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 5 to 3 margin.

Faso is now trying to downplay his more controversial stances, saying this year's election is about high taxes and economic revitalization. "Regardless of who is elected governor, the basic right of abortion is not going to change in New York State," Faso said.

An attorney who has pledged to cut taxes, Faso said, "My views are quite compatible with the majority of New Yorkers, particularly on the tax and economic issues, which will decide the elections."

Faso's opponents in the state Democratic Party's leadership were reminded yesterday of the importance of taxes in this year's election. State Democratic chairman Herman "Denny" Farrell, a Harlem assemblyman who is also head of the Assembly's Ways and Means Committee, told reporters during a news conference that job creation was his party's top priority this year.

Later in the day, Farrell, who had called the event to highlight Faso's voting record, said he had misspoken. "While I agree that jobs are a main priority, I should have expanded my comment to say that making the economy more robust in general is our top priority, and that includes cutting taxes," Farrell said in a statement.

Faso's calculation that social issues are low on voters' priority list may play well upstate, where population and business loss is a chief concern, but it could hurt Faso's candidacy in downstate areas where the state's economy is not as distressed, said Gerald Benjamin, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at SUNY New Paltz. "At the end of the day that strategy might even be fatal," Benjamin said.