The Good News:
The Clinic Access Bill Passed
The Bad News:
Two Legislators Betrayed Us!
Let me start by saying thank you to those who came out. Because you were there, you gave force and conviction to our words.
The great news is that we won. The vote by our legislators on the Reproductive Health Care Access Bill, which came one week after the Public Hearing, was 10-7 our way.
Ten legislators voted to pass our bill which guarantees safe access for women to enter and exit reproductive health clinics while protecting First Amendment Rights to free speech. This was a great victory. It has taken us more than 14 years to get this far.
Unfortunately, the bad news is that our success will be short lived because the County Executive who is an anti-choice extremist will veto this bill.
-And because last November two pro-choice elected officials were replaced by anti-choice right-to-life zealots, we lost two important override votes.
-And, most importantly, because we have two turncoats in our midst, we will not be able to override the anti-woman County Executive’s veto.
Most disturbing to me in this is that these two turncoat opportunists –Jim Maisano and Bernice Spreckman — who would have given us our super-majority override against the County Executive’s veto, voted against protecting the women of Westchester.
Instead, turncoats Maisano and Spreckman decided to launch their own personal war on women in order to further their own political and personal agendas.
Maisano stated to pro-choice advocates that he had to choose between the women of Westchester and the Conservative Party endorsement.
Maisano chose the Conservative Party.
(Conservative Party Chairman Fox, who also works for County Excutive Rob Astorino on tax payer dollars, sat right in front of Maisano to cement the deal.)
To Maisano, the Conservative party is more important than the health care of, according to the census, 51.6% of Westchester’s population.
More precisely, Maisano does not care about the health care of young women and those who cannot afford a private doctor.
Maisano only cares about his own political career, and has concocted a list of fabricated arguments to explain why he did not vote for the bill. All of his arguments have been refuted by great legal minds who do not have a political agenda.
Bernice Spreckman’s reason for betraying the trust of Westchester’s women is different.
Spreckman’s son apparently now works for County Excutive Rob Astorino. This is Spreckman’s own form of job security. She knows that Astorino is an anti-choice extremist, so she decided to look out for her son and turn her back on the women of Westchester.
Some think that it is wrong that I tell you that – somehow family facts are to be kept private. I do not agree. When the facts affect an elected official’s abiltiy to make sound decisions that impact the of 51.6% of the population then I believe the public deserves to know.
Fact: Jim Maisano and Bernice Spreckman sought our endorsement for more than a dozen years, and received it.
Fact: They used our endorsement to get elected.
Fact: After all those endorsements, this was the first time that we sought their vote and their voice – as their two votes are critical.
Fact: NOW when their vote counts, they voted NO!
Fact: For political expediency, they turned their backs on all of us who voted for them, slamming the clinic door in our faces.
At this juncture we must tell Jim Maisano and Bernice Spreckman we will not tolerate their empty words and empty promises.
Our endorsement and our votes do matter and we will not be used again.
