With Reproductive Freedom Under Attack, New Yorkers Need Letitia James as Attorney General
As long-time advocates for reproductive freedom, we know how much it matters to have an attorney general who will fight to keep personal health care decisions between a patient and their doctor. That record matters even more this November when New Yorkers will choose between New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who has spent her entire career advocating for women’s rights, and Republican nominee Saritha Komatireddy, who has repeatedly aligned herself with the extremist movement that overturned Roe v. Wade.
For nearly eight years, Attorney General James has used the full power of her office to protect reproductive care in New York. She sued anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers,” which deceive patients to stop them from accessing abortion care, and she has taken the Trump administration to court again and again amid their cascading attacks on reproductive freedom. She also took on major corporations attempting to price-gouge medication needed for treatment. This year, Attorney General James led a coalition of 22 other states in suing to block new federal conditions on Title X, the program that funds reproductive health care, family planning, cancer screenings, and other critical preventive care for millions of Americans. She is not new to this fight—in 2019, she sued the first Trump administration’s new version of Title X rules, which pushed nearly a quarter of the program’s grantees out.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Attorney General James has taken action to protect access to care for anyone who needs it. In 2023, when anti-abortion groups asked a federal court in Texas to revoke the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of mifepristone, a safe and effective medication used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S., she fought back. Attorney General James led a coalition of 22 attorneys general in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, urging the court to reject the challenge—and she stayed in the fight through the Fifth Circuit and the Supreme Court. This year, in Louisiana v. FDA, she led 21 other states and the District of Columbia in urging the Supreme Court to block a medically-unnecessary in-person dispensing requirement that would cut off telehealth access to mifepristone nationwide. But access to mifepristone remains under threat nationwide—a lawsuit from Texas and Florida that could revoke its FDA approval is set to move forward after the midterms. And last week, Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court in an attempt to strike downNew York’s abortion shield law, so they can further restrict access to abortion and punish doctors for providing care. That’s why we need leaders in office who won’t back down when reproductive rights are on the line. Now, she has been selected as the special prosecutor for the Cornell case, because Governor Kathy Hochul and New Yorkers trust her to follow the law and the facts.
Outside the courtroom, Attorney General James has been a vocal advocate for women’s rights for decades, long before she became Attorney General. As a New York City Public Advocate, she spoke out against attacks from anti-abortion extremists on Planned Parenthood, and stood shoulder to shoulder with us. She has spent her career making sure the law works for everyone—not just the powerful.
In contrast, Komatireddy, Republican nominee for New York State Attorney General, clerked for then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who cast the deciding vote in Dobbs to overturn Roe v. Wade and strip reproductive freedom from millions of women. When Trump nominated him to the Supreme Court in 2018, Komatireddy signed a letter praising his nomination, and has called him “a wonderful mentor, boss, and friend.” Trump nominated her to the federal bench in 2020, and in August he endorsedher campaign. Komatireddy is running on public safety, yet she has offered New Yorkers no commitment to protect their reproductive freedom. That silence should concern every voter in this state.
This November, New Yorkers will decide who fights for them next. Attorney General James has shown up for their rights every time they have come under attack, and the people of New York can count on her to keep the state a beacon for reproductive freedom.
Alexis McGill Johnson is the president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Mini Timmaraju is president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, which mobilizes more than 4 million members to fight for reproductive freedom.
Jessica Mackler is the president of EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics.
