After failing to represent his constituents for the last four years, Colin Schmitt feels it’s his time to go to Congress. In addition to being a reliably extreme-right Republican vote in the Assembly, Colin has never met a budget he has voted for—so any claims he makes about providing funds for his district are dubious at best.
What is Schmitt’s voting record? With the overturning of Roe in June, his votes on women’s health issues are more relevant now than ever, so let’s examine his record.
In Colin’s first term one of his official mailers made the claim that “Assemblyman Schmitt co-sponsored and helped pass legislation to protect local access to healthcare (A.02836A) and to ensure women have more accessible healthcare coverage. (A.5502).”
Is Colin Schmitt really protecting women’s access to healthcare? A.02836A “Provides for pharmacy benefit management and the procurement of prescription drugs,” while A.5502 requires health insurance in New York State to cover annual mammograms for breast cancer screening for covered persons aged 35 and older. Yes, these bills make healthcare coverage more accessible, but not healthcare. If that was Schmitt’s total record on healthcare that would be fine. But he has cast far more NO votes on Women’s Health issues than yes votes over his two terms.
During that first term Schmitt voted NO on S00659A, the “Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act” that guarantees insurance coverage for FDA-approved contraceptive drugs, devices, and products. So much for access to coverage.
He also voted NO on S00660. Known as the “Boss Bill,” it would prohibit employers from accessing an employee’s personal information regarding reproductive health decision- making and ban employer discrimination based on an individual’s or a dependent’s reproductive health decisions.
But to say that one is an advocate for women’s rights (per “Women for Schmitt”) and then vote NO on the Reproductive Health Act is incomprehensible. Yet that is exactly what Colin Schmitt has done. The Reproductive Health Act, S00240, codifies Roe V. Wade, and, according to an Assembly press release, recognizes “a woman’s fundamental right to access safe, legal abortion. The bill moves abortion from the Penal Law to the Public Health Law, which removes longstanding harmful and burdensome barriers to accessing reproductive healthcare and protects New Yorkers against future federal intrusion.” It struck New York’s old pre-Roe abortion ban from the books.
After the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision leaked in May, New York prepared for the expected ruling. Pro-active Democrats in Albany passed three bills: S9079 expands legal protections for abortion providers within New York; S9080 prohibits medical malpractice insurance companies from taking punitive actions against abortion providers; and S9077 establishes legal protections for abortion providers from out-of- state laws, including protection from extradition to another state.
Legislative Democrats also secured the first passage of an amendment to codify the right to abortion and the right to contraception in the State Constitution. (A proposed amendment must pass two consecutive legislative sessions before a public vote can be held for final approval.) According to a Senate statement, “This amendment would also update the existing Equal Rights Amendment to extend current protections to several new classes, including on the basis of sex, disability, national origin, ethnicity, and age.” Of course, Colin voted NO on all.
But it’s not surprising, given his radical-right views. When confronted with a photo of his address to a busload of people on their way to Washington in the early morning of January 6, 2021, Colin’s only response was that it was a group of anti-abortion activists on their way to a rally. Colin apparently felt that was a safer choice than calling them a group of insurrectionists on their way to a coup.
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