A Quinnipiac Poll released today shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who began opposing the Women’s Equality Act long before the bill was released, represents the extreme minority of this state and of his own party. His mischaracterizations of this bill as "extreme" are painfully out of touch with the language of the bill and with the beliefs of two-thirds of New Yorkers.

Today’s poll shows that New Yorkers overwhelmingly support the provision in the Women’s Equality Act to update New York State law to protect women’s reproductive health decisions. The poll found that 67 percent of New Yorkers support Governor Cuomo's proposal to update state law to reflect Roe v. Wade's protections for a woman's health – a core holding that has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court over the last 40 years.

Support for legal abortion when a woman's health is at risk, including late in pregnancy, stretches across gender, ethnicity, age, income, education, religion and party. Only one in five New Yorkers disagree with Roe v. Wade's protections for a woman's health, including only 36 percent of Republicans.

Now that the governor has introduced the bill and New Yorkers have spoken, the time for stalling and political posturing is over. Senators Skelos and Klein need to act. The Senate Majority should reflect the views of the majority of New Yorkers. We urge Senator Jeff Klein to end Skelos’s obstructionism and listen to New Yorkers, who want the commonsense reforms of the Women’s Equality Act to become law.