Senator Krueger Calls Out Maureen O'Connell On Stem Cell Stance

by: phillip anderson

Mon Jan 22, 2007 at 15:37:43 PM EST

STATEMENT BY STATE SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER ON REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE MAUREEN O'CONNELL'S SHIFTING STEM CELL RESEARCH STANCE

It was reported today that Maureen O'Connell, Republican Leader Joe Bruno's candidate to fill the Senate vacancy left by former Senator Michael Balboni, said efforts to fund a $1 billion stem-cell research plan do not "go far enough." Her statement implies that she fully supports the medical promise of stem-cell research.

Maureen O'Connell speaks a good game come campaign time, but she does not have the record to back up her rhetoric.

In 2004, then-Assemblywoman O'Connell sponsored legislation (A10256) that would have banned medical procedures necessary to conduct stem-cell research. In 2003 and again in 2004, she voted against the "Reproductive Cloning Prohibition and Research Protection Act." While serving on the Assembly Health Committee, O'Connell voted against A6300, which would have established a state-funded institute for stem cell research in New York State.

As the lead sponsor of legislation that would advance stem-cell research in our State (S433B), I find it disheartening that Maureen O'Connell is actively misleading the voters of the 7th Senate District. Despite being a registered nurse, O'Connell voted against legislation that is medically accurate, ethically sound, and economically wise.

 
Blocking Access to Birth Control
Maureen O'Connell vehemently opposed legislation that would reduce unintended pregnancy by permitting women to access the "morning after pill" directly from a pharmacy.

Criminalizing Abortion
Maureen O'Connell supported legislation that would send doctors and nurses to jail even when facing the most catastrophic situations. 

At the Daily Gotham, Bouldin adds:

In the universe of anti-choice activism, there are gradations. Opposition to emergency contraception and the demand to criminalize doctors and nurses are extremist by any standard; that's Operation Rescue territory.

What makes O'Connell's dogmatic anti-choice extremism so dangerous at this juncture is simply this: in the State Assembly, her views are harmless, because there's a strong, common-sense pro-choice majority in place. In the heavily gerrymandered republican Senate, by contrast, there is an anti-choice majority (led most often by Senator Serph Maltese), and O'Connell would be able to legislate her views, as far out of the mainstream as they are.

Hmmm. "Out of the mainstream". Where have I heard that before?

Looks like Maureen O'Connell is trying to sneak back into that "mainstream".

Nice try.