Rep. Richard Hanna, Pro-Women's Health Republican, Handily Defeats Tea Party Candidate
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Last night, Congressman Richard Hanna won the Republican primary for the 22nd Congressional District in New York after handily defeating Tea-Party-backed challenger Michael Kicinski.
Since he was first elected in 2010, Representative Hanna has been an outspoken advocate of women’s health. Just three months into his first term, when Republicans in the House pushed for an amendment that would have cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood, Hanna fought back, standing with only seven Republicans to vote against the bill. He called the cuts “draconian.”
Hanna has consistently refused to go along with the harmful and dangerous attacks on women’s health, even when it required him to break away from his own party leadership. But Hanna has done more than vote against bad bills — he’s signed on to expand access for women. He co-sponsored a bipartisan letter to encourage the Department of Health and Human Services to support women’s primary care providers as eligible facilities in order to further expand access to care for women in underserved communities.
Hanna’s opponent, Michael Kicinski, specifically attacked Hanna for his support of Planned Parenthood and women’s health.
Here’s Kicinski on Congressman Hanna’s vote against PRENDA, the Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act, which is designed to limit women’s access to abortion by interfering with the doctor/patient relationship.
"My opponent claims he wants to reduce instances of abortion, supports equal rights for all girls and women, and wants to see gender discrimination at all stages abolished. But refusing to ban sex-selection abortions through his no vote is certainly a poor way to show this. It is clear by his record that Richard Hanna has joined the Democrat Party war on women by voting to support the killing of unborn baby girls that would become women of the future."
Meanwhile, Hanna explained his vote against PRENDA by stating that while he does not support sex selective abortion in any way, he “could not support this legislation because it raises too many concerns about effectiveness, enforceability, and its impact on the doctor-patient relationship."
The overwhelming victory of Hanna against Tea Party candidate Kicinski shows that not only are there Republicans willing to courageously stand up for women’s health, but that Republican voters know the difference.
