Friends- On Tuesday, Republican primary voters confirmed that my opponent would be anti-choice extremist Terrence Murphy. Immediately on Wednesday morning, pro-choice leaders rallied to support our campaign, descending on our newest campaign office in Mt. Pleasant!
Local leaders like the Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion's Catherine Lederer-Plaskett were joined by statewide organizations such as NARAL and Planned Parenthood Advocates at a rally and press conference highlighting the stark contrast between myself and my opponent when it comes both to choice and women's rights as a whole. Check out some video from Wednesday's press conference, here:
My opponent has called abortion "murder," and has repeatedly described himself as a "pro-life type of guy." Well, with respect, I think that's exactly the problem: he and I are both guys, and guys shouldn't be picking and choosing which medical decisions they think women shouldn't be trusted to make for themselves .
This is a major values difference with major immediate impacts on legislation. Murphy's position puts him squarely in opposition to the Women's Equality Act, a ten-point bill that Gov. Cuomo and leading women's groups have been trying to pass for two years that would strengthen New York's laws on pay discrimination, modernize our outdated, pre- Roe v. Wade legal provisions on abortion, strengthen workplace discrimination laws, and make a raft of other advances toward the goal of equality.
I would vote for the Women's Equality Act. Terrence Murphy would not.
That's one of the many clear differences we'll be drawing between now and Election Day at our events, in the media, and in our conversations with voters. With your support, we'll get our message out -- and the mainstream, commonsense Hudson Valley values that we share will win out over Tea Party extremism.
Thank you for everything you do,
Justin
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