City & State: Josh Riley Highlights Marc Molinaro’s Controversial Abortion Vote in New Ad

City & State reported on a new ad this week from Democratic nominee in New York's 19th Congressional District Josh Riley's campaign highlighting Marc Molinaro's extreme anti-abortion history.

Watch the full ad here.

As a career politician, Marc Molinaro has an extensive record of threatening a woman's right to reproductive freedom and health care - voting against Medicaid funds for reproductive health, opposing the codification of Roe v. Wade in New York and nationwide, funding anti-choice fake women's health centers, and even voting for a bill that could punish doctors providing abortion care with jail time. Molinaro was even caught on audio suggesting support for banning abortion nationwide - even in New York.

DCCC Spokesperson Ellie Dougherty:
"Marc Molinaro has an abysmal record on reproductive rights and has worked to rip away Upstate women's fundamental freedoms for years. Josh Riley will always protect Upstate New York women's access to reproductive care, and he won't let Molinaro duck his record this November."

City & State New York: Josh Riley highlights Marc Molinaro's controversial abortion vote in new ad
Austin C. Jefferson | July 1, 2024

• Reproductive rights look to be a hot button issue for congressional candidates this year, and Josh Riley, the Democrat challenging Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro in the 19th Congressional District, is looking to capitalize on the issue by releasing his first ad of the general election cycle.

• The Riley campaign's new digital ad, which was exclusively shared with City & State, features audio of a conversation between Molinaro and a voter about the freshman lawmaker's position on abortion. The Riley campaign is projected to spend several thousand dollars on the initial digital ad campaign.

• In the conversation, the voter asks Molinaro why he voted against codifying Roe v. Wade when he was in the Assembly. "I think there ought to be limitations," Molinaro can be heard telling the voter. "I don't know how to vote for someone who will not stand up, look me in the eye and say, 'I will support a woman's right to choose,'" the voter says before the ad ends.

• Molinaro declined to comment on his Assembly vote… He said that he believed in restrictions on late term and partial-birth abortions and exceptions in the case of rape, incest and the health of the mother.