State Sen. James "Jim" Tedisco today told both PlanetAlbany and the socially conservative New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms Political Action Committee that the Albany Times Union Opinion page misquoted him in its Oct. 31/Nov. 1 editorial regarding the Reproductive Health Act, which the TU said he now supports but in fact he continues to oppose.
Tedisco was the only Republican Senate candidate endorsed by the TU. Its editorial said, "In his first Senate term serving a vast district reaching from Niskayuna to Long Lake, his stance has evolved on key issues. In particular, he now supports the RHA and the Child Victims Act, breaking from GOP leaders on both issues. … Sen. Tedisco earns our endorsement as the kind of legislator we're glad to see in any party — someone willing to work across the aisle and to reconsider his own positions, even when his personal views don't accord with his constituents' desires."
The RHA, as the TU editorial says, "would codify abortion rights in state law." But in New York, where abortion was legalized before the US Supreme Court affirmed Roe v. Wade, it would stay legal even if Roe were to be overturned. And the RHA, according to opponents, "would allow any 'health care practitioner' to perform an abortion, enshrine late-term abortion in New York State law, jeopardize any agency that does not refer for abortion and seriously threaten conscience protections for hospitals and medical professionals."
Tedisco echoed those concerns Sunday to PlanetAlbany, saying "I never told" the TU he had changed his pro-life position or his opposition to the RHA. "I don't know if they misunderstood or did it on purpose," he said. Tedisco said the TU possibly "gave me fake information to cover themselves," or misinterpreted his support for women's health, and education programs to prevent unwanted pregnancy, as support for abortion.
Comments