Primary election results for races involving women's health issues

Sep 14 2006

Nine states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday held primary elections, and some of the races involved women's health issues. Results from these races appear below.

• Arizona: Len Munsil, former president of the conservative Center for Arizona Policy who has lobbied the state Legislature to pass restrictions on abortion rights, won the Republican gubernatorial primary over Don Goldwater, Mike Harris and Gary Tupper, the AP/Mohave Valley News reports (Davenport, AP/Mohave Valley News, 9/12). Munsil has said he would have signed four measures that incumbent Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) vetoed in April: HB 2254, which would have required physicians to inform women seeking abortion after 20 weeks' gestation that the fetus can feel pain even if the women take pain medication during the procedure; SB 1325, which would have prohibited state and local governments from using public funds to cover abortion costs for low-income women; HB 2666, which would have amended the state's existing parental consent law to require that consent forms be notarized; and HB 2142, which would have prohibited women from selling their eggs (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/20).

• Maryland: Lt. Gov. Michael Steele won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, the Baltimore Sun reports (Brown/Skalka, Baltimore Sun, 9/13). Steele in February during a Baltimore Jewish Council board meeting described stem cell research as "the destruction of human life" and compared it to Nazi experimentation on Jewish people during the Holocaust. Steele later in February in a radio interview on WBAL said, "I humbly apologize to everyone, certainly in that room and anyone who is now following this, because that is not where my heart or where my head is." Steele also said he supports embryonic stem cell research with "some moral compass to guide" it and that he supports research conducted at NIH that allows scientists to extract cells "without destroying the embryo" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/13). Steele will face U.S. Rep. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who won the Democratic primary for the Senate seat (Baltimore Sun, 9/13).

• New York State: John Spencer, who opposes abortion rights, won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate over Kathleen Troia McFarland, who has said she supports abortion rights, the AP/Albany Times Union reports (Fouhy, AP/Albany Times Union, 9/12). Spencer has criticized a bill introduced in April by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) that would require the Federal Trade Commission to adopt policies barring health providers from advertising "with the intent to deceptively create the impression that such person is a provider of abortion services if such person does not provide abortion services." The legislation defines "abortion services" as using drugs or surgery to end a pregnancy or providing referrals for such services. Spencer in April said incumbent Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) should "chastise her Democratic liberal colleagues for attacking the work of adoption centers" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/4). Rodham Clinton on Tuesday won the Democratic primary (AP/Albany Times Union, 9/12). Rodham Clinton on her Web site says she supports abortion rights as defined by Roe v. Wade -- the 1973 Supreme Court case that effectively barred state abortion bans -- and believes that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/9).

• New York: State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who supports abortion rights, won the Democratic gubernatorial primary over Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, the New York Times reports (Healy, New York Times, 9/13). Spitzer in a February speech expressed his support for "the right of a woman and her doctor to consider all necessary and appropriate options, including, as a last resort, late-term abortion when her life or health is at risk." Suozzi has said that he supports a ban without exceptions on so-called "partial-birth" abortion and that he believes there are late-term procedures "not as unnecessarily violent as partial-birth" procedures. Suozzi in May 2005 proposed a three-year, $3 million program to reduce the number of abortions in Nassau County, saying he hopes the proposal can "bring together opposing sides" to create a "world with fewer abortions" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/10). Spitzer in the general election will face attorney John Faso (R), who in 1987 said that the Roe decision is a "black mark upon this country" and has said he opposes abortion rights except in cases of incest or rape or when the woman's life is at risk. He also has said that if he were elected, he would limit coverage of abortions for Medicaid beneficiaries to those instances (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 6/8).

• Rhode Island: Incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), who supports abortion rights, won the Republican primary over Cranston, R.I., Mayor Stephen Laffey, who opposes abortion rights, the AP/Boston Globe reports (Johnson, AP/Boston Globe, 9/13). Common Sense 2006, an Ohio-based group "targeting candidates who support abortion rights," earlier this month launched a so-called "push poll" criticizing Chaffee's stance on abortion rights in an attempt to weaken his support, according to several voters in the state. Several voters received automated phone calls asking which candidate they would vote for in the primary. People who said they would vote for Chafee "heard graphic descriptions of an abortion procedure opponents call 'partial-birth abortion,'" which the poll said Chafee supports. Laffey spokesperson Nachama Soloveichik has said the campaign was not involved in the poll (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 9/11). Chaffee will face state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse (D) in the general election (AP/Boston Globe, 9/13).