Cuomo's Equality Bill for Women Tanks in Senate

Gov. Andrew Cuomo failed to pass the Women’s Equality Act on Friday, after the Senate refused to pass one of the ten points in the plan—specifically the one that would strengthen abortion rights language into law, The New York Times writes: 

The bill – most of which has received widespread support -- would strengthen the state’s laws against sexual harassment, human trafficking, domestic violence and salary discrimination. 

But it was the language on abortion that became the sticking point: Cuomo and women’s rights advocates said it would simply codify into state law the right already guaranteed through Roe v. Wade. But abortion opponents felt the move was subterfuge for expanding the overall availability of abortions.

The Assembly, controlled by Democrats, voted for the entire package. Sensing the Senate’s rejection of the bill overall, Cuomo in the final days of the session made an abrupt strategic move and switched from accepting nothing less than the entire bill’s 10-point passage, to urging the bill’s supporters to accept a partial victory without codifying abortion rights.

But when the leader of the independent faction of Democrats, Senator Jeffrey D. Klein of the Bronx, tried to attach the abortion language to a bill on medical records, the effort failed by one vote in the Senate, which is controlled by a coalition of Republicans and independent Democrats.