ProChoice Voter Endorses Vedat Gashi for Congress, NY-16

Choice Matters Rates Gashi 100% Pro-Choice

By Dan Murphy

On August 10, ProChoice Voter endorsed NY-16 Candidate Vedat Gashi for Congress. ProChoice Voter works to keep abortion legal and accessible for all women, regardless of age, race, class, status, geography or ability to pay. The organization joins a growing coalition supporting Gashi’s vision to deliver real results and real progress for the Bronx and Westchester.

“ProChoice Voter is proud to co-endorse Vedat Gashi for Congress. Gashi is a lifelong supporter of reproductive rights,” said ProChoice Voter Director Catherine Lederer-Plaskett. “As Vice Chairperson of the Legislature Committee, Legislator Vedat Gashi worked together with Choice Matters, and the bill’s sponsors, to pass the Westchester County Reproductive Health Care Facilities Access Act. This is a resounding victory that has taken over 12 years to accomplish and one that – given the huge uptick in violence and the overturning of Roe v. Wade – could not come at a more crucial time.” 

“Women’s rights are human rights and as a proud girl dad and husband, this is personal to me and I am deeply committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose, to codifying Roe v. Wade and to securing legal and safe abortions in New York and across the country,” said NY-16 Candidate Vedat Gashi. “I am truly honored to have earned the endorsement of ProChoice Voter and rated 100% pro-choice by Choice Matters – I look forward to working together to ensure abortion is protected under the law as a fundamental right.”

As County Legislator, Gashi has implemented a series of policies and funding projects that have improved the quality of life for women and families. He passed a clinic access bill that protects women’s health and has delivered millions for childcare and affordable housing. He is committed to expanding crucial policies that provide families across the Bronx and Westchester access to affordable and quality health care including reproductive care.

While this is the only release we received from any of the democratic candidates for Congress in NY-16 concerning the ProChoice voter endorsement, another Westchester democrat confirmed that Gashi and Congressman Jamaal Bowman both received the co-endorsement from the group, but Parker did not.

One Westchester democrat said, “A lot of Westchester democrats saw this endorsement and wondered why Catherine Parker was also not recommended? Part of the reason may be when she started out in Rye, she was more of a moderate to conservative democrat.”

Several other democrats who place a priority on codifying Roe v Wade into law, or for the US Supreme Court to be expanded, commented on Social Media that they had received one email blast from Parker in which she writes, “I’ll codify Roe,” only to receive another email from the Parker campaign one week later stating, “we have to be realistic and look at what we can actually do. Why do I think these ideas are unicorns?”

“Which one is it?” asked one Yonkers democrat. “What about all of us who want our right to choose protected by codifying or expanding the court? Are we nuts, or unicorns?”