Leading abortion rights group endorses Hillary Clinton

By Phil Hirschkorn/CNN

May 25, 2000
Web posted at: 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League of New York announced Thursday it is backing Hillary Rodham Clinton's bid for the U.S. Senate.

Kelli Conlin, executive director of NARAL/NY, said at a news conference that Clinton was "a truly pro-choice candidate," while her Republican opponent, Rep. Rick Lazio, "claims to be pro-choice, but votes against abortion rights time and time again."

"The issue contrast could not be clearer," said Clinton at the event. "I intend to be a voice and a vote and an advocate for women's rights on behalf of a woman's right to choose."

The group said Clinton was the only candidate publicly committed to confirming Supreme Court justices who would uphold Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal.

The group said that, of 94 votes it examined, Lazio voted 43 times for congressional bills that would curtail women's access to "the full range of reproductive health care."

"From now until November, pro-choice New Yorkers will learn that Rick Lazio's anti-choice votes speak louder than his self-proclaimed pro-choice words," Conlin said.

Clinton said NARAL's assessment of Lazio's record matched research from her own campaign.

"Since the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, there have been more than 100 votes to limit abortion rights," the Democratic nominee said. "We do not need another Republican in the Senate who would stand with Republicans to limit women's rights."

Lazio has said he opposes the late-term procedure some critics call "partial-birth" abortion.

But NARAL/NY said the four-term congressman has also voted to ban privately funded abortions at overseas U.S. military hospitals, Medicaid coverage for abortions, and abortions for women in federal prisons.

"They're mischaracterizing his record," responded Lazio campaign spokesman Bryan Flood. "What they're saying is, in every other instance, he's straight pro-choice. Other than exceptions he's talked about, federal funding and partial-birth, he is very mainstream."