Part 1: Albany Reform

Surveying the national political scene these days is a thing of wonder and beauty for patriotic Americans, and cause for despair among republicans. In every region of the country, formerly red states are embracing Barack Obama and Democrats; we're leading in Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, North Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico. Our Senate candidates seem poised to win in such unfriendly terrain as Alaska and North Carolina and many others besides, putting a filibuster-proof sixty seat majority within our grasp. If we do capture majorities of this magnitude, we will transform the nation for a generation. Here's what the big map looks like today:

It's a truism in every Presidential election cycle: what really matters is the Supreme Court. The republicans certainly understood that in 2004; note how Bush's one signature achievement in his "second" term was the elevation to the bench of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, along with many others in a similar extremist, un-American vein to the lower levels of the Federal bench.

The main line of defense against the infestation of the Federal bench by extremist ideologues is at the state level. And here, again, the Senate is the first line of attack for the forces of reaction. The two main woman-haters in the upper house are Serph Maltese and Frank Padavan, offering between them four pieces of anti-choice legislation.

Bill Number: NY S6645
Defines pregnancy and conception in such a way that it could jeopardize access to contraception. Requires women receive state-mandated lecture which includes medically inaccurate information prior to obtaining abortion service and prohibits abortion unless women wait an additional 24 hours after receiving lecture. Subjects abortion providers to burdensome restrictions.
Sponsor: Maltese (R)

Bill Number: NY S6644
Allows certain individuals to refuse to perform any abortion services in all or most circumstances. Allows certain individuals to refuse to provide or dispense contraceptives in all or most circumstances.
Sponsor: Maltese (R)

But wait, there's more.

Bill Number: NY S3117
Amends definition of person in several sections of the criminal code to include "unborn child at any stage of gestation."
Sponsor: Maltese (R)

The only other anti-choice bill offered in the Senate in 2008 was Frank Padavan's NY S4431. The likely effects of these bills on women's reproductive freedom are profound. Maltese's three bills represent a three-pronged attack on women themselves: by defining a fetus as a person, during pregnancy, a woman is a ward of the state, responsible to the government, not her family or her doctor, for the well-being of a citizen. No comparable burden exists for men under any circumstances. By allowing providers to refuse to dispense contraceptives, and to refuse to provide required medical services, women are reduced to second-class citizens in a vital area of their lives, their health.

There's no reason to expect, what with a Democratic majority in the Assembly, that any of these bills will ever become law. However, the republican majority in the Senate precludes any affirmative steps on women's reproductive autonomy. Now, things are looking good for the forces of freedom right now; but remember, as Team Rove learned at its cost, that political fortunes can change in a historical instant. If we want to enact strong protections for choice, for access to contraception, and other issues of concern to women and men both, as a backstop against future reversals at the Federal level, we need a Democratic state Senate.