Cuomo, seeking women's votes, raises alarm on abortion rights

SYRACUSE -- Democratic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo set out Saturday on a "Women's Equality" tour upstate to emphasize his support for abortion rights and Republican Rob Astorino's opposition.

"You don't support a right to choose," Cuomo said of abortion-rights opponents during a rally at an Albany labor hall, kicking off his first tour of his re-election campaign. "We support the right to choose. And that's what this is about."

Republicans countered by calling that a distraction to avoid talking about a sexual harassment scandal last year in the Assembly. Assemb. Steven F. McLaughlin (R-Schaghticoke), who led a small counter-demonstration outside, said Cuomo was using the abortion issue as a "red herring."

Cuomo, who holds a large lead over Astorino in the polls, is trying to drive home a point about a wedge issue in a largely pro-abortion-rights state.

Boarding a bus with its side painted "Women's Equality Express," Cuomo stopped in Albany, Syracuse and Rochester to highlight a 10-point agenda with many proposals with overwhelming bipartisan support. Among them: reducing human trafficking and domestic violence, and ending workplace discrimination.

That Cuomo agenda died in the 2014 legislative session because of its one controversial proposal: to codify abortion rights under Roe v. Wade into state law. Senate Republicans said they would pass every proposal except that one.

Democratic lawmakers and Cuomo insisted on passing all 10 at once, until very late in the session, which adjourned without compromise.

"If he really cared about the women's agenda, he would have agreed to pass nine of the 10," McLaughlin said.

Inside, Cuomo told Democrats, labor groups and Planned Parenthood supporters New York couldn't assume abortion rights would always be protected.

"The U.S. Supreme Court could reverse Roe v. Wade," Cuomo said. "So we want Roe v. Wade in the New York law."

Republicans have said Roe v. Wade rights aren't threatened in New York because no one is proposing to outlaw abortion.

On the road, Cuomo walked to the back of the bus to tell reporters why he's stressing the issue in his campaign.

"If women understand that their right to choice is actually a topic of debate, you will see a female response like you've never seen at the polls," he said.

His running mate for lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, pointed to a court ruling Thursday that will result in closing all but seven clinics in Texas that provide abortion services.

"Extremists are taking over women's rights -- and I only have to say one word: Texas," Hochul said at a Syracuse community center.

Republicans trailed Cuomo in a van they dubbed the "Shelly Silver Express," to dog the governor about a sexual harassment scandal in the Assembly.

Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) in 2012 used state funds to secretly settle harassment claims against a now-former Democratic legislator, Vito Lopez of Brooklyn by female Assembly employees.

Some Republicans called on Silver to resign and criticized Cuomo for not moving to oust the speaker.

"Why didn't he stand with me and call for Shelly Silver to resign?" said Assemb. Claudia Tenney (R-Utica) outside the Syracuse rally.