Abort bill now, N.Y. Senate Dems told

ALBANY — A leading abortion rights group is set to unveil Wednesday a campaign to push state Senate Democrats to follow through on their promise to strengthen the state’s abortion laws early next year, the Daily News has learned.

The National Institute for Reproductive Health Action Fund’s $500,000 campaign will include TV, radio and digital ads as well as billboards.

It will also target newly elected Long Island senators and those from the Hudson Valley with a grassroots effort designed to “bolster their commitment to the bill and demonstrate widespread public support,” said National Institute President Andrea Miller.

The Assembly has passed the legislation multiple times, only to watch it die in the Republican-controlled Senate. But come January, the Democrats will hold at least 39 of the Senate’s 63 seats.

Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy noted that incoming Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins was an early sponsor of the abortion bill and added that strengthening the state reproductive health laws is a priority that will be addressed early in the new year.

Miller said her organization wants to make sure.

“The bottom line is there are lots of priorities,” she said. “We don’t take anything for granted until it passes and the ink is dry from the governor’s pen.”

Gov. Cuomo says the measure is vital at a time when “the federal government wages a war on reproductive rights.”