Mondaire Jones Holds Reproductive Rights Meeting Calling Out Mike Lawler

On Thursday August 8th, former Congressman Mondaire Jones, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 17th Congressional District  ,held a press conference focused on his support of women’s reproductive health care, contrasting himself with incumbent Congressman Mike Lawler and his pro life voting record. 

The conference began with Robin Chappelle Golston, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts, who spoke on the importance of this year’s election. Golston asserted that Lawler “is part of a party that attacks reproductive health care at all levels, including contraception.” Golston attacked Lawler, claiming that although Lawler maintains he is bipartisan, he “does not call out the devastating impact that we’re seeing across the country due to abortion bans”. Golston voiced support for Jones and announced that the Democrat  is officially endorsed by Planned Parenthood as the candidate that “understands that patients and providers are the ones that should be making health care decisions, not politics”. 

Following Golston was Catherine Lederer-Plaskett, director of ProChoice Voters, who spoke on the United States’ repeated attempts to restrict women’s access to abortions. She contended that while the U.S. is highly involved with women’s health care and abortions, the federal government refuses to be involved with vasectomies. She reminded the crowd that although Lawler has stated he would not support a national abortion ban, he has voted in favor of legislation that does restrict access to the procedure, specifically H.R. 2670 which became law in 2023. H.R. 2670 is the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024”. It authorizes the budget for the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of State, and Intelligence programs. Within this law, Lawler voted for the Jackson Amendment in regards to H.R. 2670, which “prohibit[s] the Secretary of Defense from paying for or reimbursing expenses relating to abortion services” for service members.

Sarah Ludwig, a Childbirth Educator, Labor and Postpartum Doula, addressed the conference subsequently. Ludwig spoke of a former patient who had wanted her pregnancy, but for undisclosed reasons had to make the decision to terminate the pregnancy. She continued, stating that “Thanks to New York’s robust protections for reproductive health, [the patient] could access the care that she needed without additional stress or barriers”.

 She implored voters support reproductive rights, saying “Our daughters must not have fewer rights than we have.”

This emotional story set the stage for Ludwig to introduce Mondaire Jones to the podium. Jones quickly brought up Lawler’s alleged anti-choice voting history, referencing Lawler’s vote against service members receiving abortion care and against women’s reproductive rights. Lawler did vote to block the consideration of the Women’s Health Protection Act in 2021. 

Jones repeatedly stressed this anti-choice voting as it is a well known Achilles heel of the Republican Party. Abortion is a hot-button issue, one that Jones seems to believe will unify and energize not only Democrats but New Yorkers overall with the majority of New York residents believing abortion should be legal in all or most cases. According to a poll conducted by the Siena College Research Institute, 64% of New Yorkers would support a constitutional amendment protecting the right to an abortion.   Jones also criticized Lawler’s new IVF legislation as a political ploy and stated that IVF should be “safe and secure for every American.”

Jones spoke on Lawler’s support of Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, claiming that Johnson has “used his power to restrict women’s reproductive freedom at every single opportunity.”     

The Democrat nominee portrayed Lawler’s record as further to the right than the Republican Congressman would like to admit. 

During his time in the New York State Assembly, Lawler voted against Pro Choice legislation including Bill S09079B which “prohibits professional misconduct charges against doctors performing health care services in their scope of practice in states where reproductive services are illegal.” Bill S09079B was signed into law in 2022.  Lawler also voted against Bill S51002 which states that no one should face discrimination in their civil rights or be denied equal protection under the law due to, amongst other variables such as sex, gender, race and age, pregnancy, reproductive healthcare and autonomy. Bill S09079B passed both the Senate and State House of Representatives but has not been adopted by the governor. 

Congressman Lawler’s office did not respond to the RCT’s request for comment on Jones’ claims. Lawler and his campaign have repeatedly stated that the he would not vote in favor of a national abortion ban.