NY Gov. Hochul Calls Pro-Lifers ‘Neanderthals’ Amid Surge In Attacks On Pro-Life Centers

On Monday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) gave a speech attacking pro-life individuals as she signed legislation strengthening access to abortion, calling them “neanderthals.” Her comments came amid a surge in attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and religious organizations.

The legislation signed by Hochul will protect abortion “rights” and “empower” abortion providers in New York state.

“Reproductive rights are human rights, and today we are signing landmark legislation to further protect them and all who wish to access them in New York State,” Hochul said as she signed the legislation, calling abortion a “reproductive right” despite the fact that reproduction must have already occurred in order for an abortion to be possible.

“The women of New York will never be subjugated to government mandated pregnancies because that’s what will ensue if Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court,” Hochul said. “This is the United States of America, where freedom and liberty are supposed to mean something. It’s the rock upon which we were founded. It is supposed to mean something. Except in the eyes of some neanderthals who say, women are not entitled to those rights.”

The news comes a few days after a group of more than 100 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Department of Justice (DOJ) Attorney General Merrick Garland asking that he investigate attacks on pro-life religious organizations and pregnancy centers as domestic terrorism.

The group noted that there has been a surge in these types of attacks since the draft of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health was leaked to Politico. In the draft, Justice Samuel Alito writes that “Roe and Casey must be overruled… Roe was egregiously wrong from the start”

“In the past month, terrorists have targeted numerous pro-life crisis pregnancy centers — two of which culminated in the firebombing and destruction of property by the terrorist group Jane’s Revenge in Buffalo, NY, and Madison, WI. During the Madison attack, the group directly threatened life and spray painted ‘if abortions aren’t safe, then you aren’t either’ on the building’s façade,” the group wrote.

The group then listed more than a dozen recent attacks on pro-life organizations and added, “As you know, the Department of Homeland Security is anticipating further violence and unrest in the coming months upon the final release of the Dobbs opinion, stating that these threats are ‘likely to persist and may increase leading up to and following the issuing of the Court’s official ruling’. With this warning made clear, the Department of Justice must act swiftly to investigate and prosecute recent domestic terrorist attacks against pro-life organizations and dissuade future perpetrators of such violence.”