On the heels of switching party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, Brooklyn Councilman Ari Kagan is now advocating for a ban on elective abortions — even though he helped pass a bill last year requiring the city to provide free medical abortion pills to anyone who asks for it.
Kagan, who’s facing a highly competitive challenge in next month’s Council elections, made his support for a modified abortion prohibition known in this year’s NYC Votes guide, which was posted online Tuesday. The guide is compiled by the city Campaign Finance Board ahead of elections to provide constituents with details on where candidates stand on specific issues.
On the part of his NYC Votes questionnaire asking about abortion access, Kagan wrote: “Life starts at conception. Abortions should be rare, only in cases of rape, incest or danger for the mother’s life and health.”
The views Kagan stated on the form are in line with those of conservative leaders in red states like Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, where abortion was largely banned in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade precedent that enshrined abortion as a constitutional right. Some other Republican-led states, like Florida, did not go as far following the repeal of Roe, but rather opted to ban abortions after a certain number of weeks of pregnancy.
Kagan’s hardline abortion stance is in sharp contrast to how he voted before he became a Republican in December 2022.
In response to the Supreme Court’s Roe revocation, the Council in July 2022 adopted a package of bills shoring up abortion access as part of a promise to make New York City a “safe haven” for reproductive rights in the U.S.
The most consequential bill in the package required all city Department of Health clinics to offer free access to mifepristone and misoprostol, pill-form medications that can terminate a pregnancy that’s less than 10 weeks along. New Yorkers and residents of other states can get the pills free of charge from city clinics, according to the bill. Mayor Adams signed the bill a month after its passage, and it took effect this past August.
The vote happened about five months before Kagan made his party switch.
Along with nearly all of his Democratic colleagues, Kagan voted for the medical abortion access-expanding bill, Council records show. He voted for all other bills in the package, too, including a measure requiring the city to launch public information campaigns on where abortion services can be accessed as well as a provision making it illegal for city resources to be used to help other states enforce abortion restrictions.
Despite his 2022 “yes” vote on the bill safeguarding universal access to mifepristone and misoprostol, Kagan also wrote in his candidate questionnaire: “NYC taxpayers should not fund abortion travel expenses for out of state residents.”
Kagan, who’s running in the Nov. 7 election to represent a district that includes Bay Ridge and Coney Island, did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday on how he squares his previous voting record with his newfound abortion stance.
Some of Kagan’s fellow Council Republicans did not go as far as him in their NYC Votes questionnaires.
Staten Island Councilman Joe Borelli, the Council’s Republican minority leader who voted against the abortion rights package in 2022, stated on his questionnaire that he is “pro-life,” but added: “It’s unclear what authority, if any, the city has on this issue.”
Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola, who also voted against the 2022 package, wrote in her form: “Having children and grandchildren, I believe in the sanctity of life, as well as women having access to good healthcare and educational tools that explain healthcare options.”
Protecting abortion access is widely popular in New York, according to polling. A Siena College survey from last year found that 60% of New Yorkers statewide wanted the Supreme Court to uphold the Roe ruling, while just 24% supported its repeal.
Justin Brannan
Kagan is facing Democratic Councilman Justin Brannan in next month’s election over who will get to represent the Council’s 47th District in the next term. The race is considered one of the most competitive in this year’s local election cycle.
Brannan, who describes himself as “pro-choice” in his NYC Votes questionnaire, blasted Kagan’s support for an elective abortion ban as a “shockingly aggressive and unacceptable stance in our community and in New York City.”
“What Ari Kagan stands for is nothing short of governmental cruelty and totalitarian control over women, their bodies, their families, and their healthcare,” Brannan said. “The women of southern Brooklyn deserve better than this troglodyte.”
NYC Councilman Ari Kagan now backs elective abortion ban despite voting for reproductive rights bills last year
