Founded 1970 | Ideology Pro-life | |
The New York State Right to Life Party was founded to oppose the legalization of abortion in New York in 1970.
The party first made the state ballot in the 1978 gubernatorial election, where its candidate Mary Jane Tobin won 130,000 votes. Its share of the vote subsequently declined, although it maintained official ballot status until 2002, when it fell short of the 50,000 votes required to remain on the ballot. In 2006, the party endorsed Reverend Jennifer Liese for Governor. Liese's signatures were disputed by a Republican staffer, Rachel L. Bledi. As of November 2006 there were 40,278 members statewide. The party did not endorse a gubernatorial candidate in 2010, though it has been able to get two state supreme court nominees onto the ballot via the petition process. Its ballot icon was a fetus in utero.
Its initial goal was not met; abortion was legalized in New York in 1970, and the United States Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade effectively legalized abortion in 1973.