New York Attorney General Letitia James Announces Legislation to Protect and Expand Access to Aborti

For Immediate Release
May 9, 2022

New York Attorney General Letitia James Announces Legislation to Protect and Expand Access to Abortion

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, New York Attorney General Letitia James and state lawmakers announced new legislation to protect and expand access to abortion, as Democratic pro-choice attorneys general across the country pledge to protect reproductive freedoms. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement in response:

“Today’s action by New York Attorney General Letitia James shows how critical it is to elect Democratic pro-choice women to office. In the wake of the leaked draft of the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Democratic pro-choice women at all levels of government will be integral in the fight to protect access to abortion. Make no mistake, if Roe v. Wade is overturned, attorneys general will serve as the final line of defense to protect our reproductive freedoms.

“At EMILYs List, we will continue to fight harder than ever to elect more Democratic pro-choice women at all levels of government who will protect our rights and ensure that our abortion rights do not depend on our zip code or our financial situation.”                                                                                                                                                                                                            
EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $700 million to elect Democratic pro-choice women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country's first woman as vice president, 159 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.