NYC Councilman Ari Kagan now backs elective abortion ban despite voting for reproductive rights bills last year

On the heels of switching party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, Brooklyn Councilman Ari Kagan is now advocating for a ban on elective abortions — even though he helped pass legislation last year requiring the city to provide free medical abortion pills to anyone who asks for it.

Kagan, who’s facing a highly competitive challenge in next month’s Council elections, made his support for an abortion ban known in this year’s NYC Votes guide, which was posted online Tuesday. The guide is compiled by the city Campaign Finance Board ahead of elections to offer constituents details on where candidates stand on specific issues.

On the part of his NYC Votes questionnaire asking about abortion access, Kagan wrote: “Life starts at conception. Abortions should be rare, only in cases of rape, incest or danger for the mother’s life and health.”

The views Kagan stated on the form are in line with those of conservative leaders in red states like Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, where abortion was largely banned in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade precedent that enshrined abortion as a constitutional right. Some other Republican-led states, like Florida, did not go as far following the repeal of Roe, but rather opted to ban abortions after a certain number of weeks of pregnancy.

Kagan’s hardline abortion stance is in sharp contrast with how he voted before he became a Republican in December 2022.

Along with nearly all of his Democratic colleagues, Kagan in July 2022 — about five months before his party flip — voted for a package of Council bills beefing up abortion access in New York City as part of a promise to make it a “safe haven” for reproductive rights.

The most consequential provision in the package required all city Department of Health clinics to offer mifepristone and misoprostol, pill-form medications that can terminate a pregnancy that’s less than 10 weeks along. Under the bill, clinics must offer the pills free of charge to New Yorkers and residents of other states.

Other bills in the package backed by Kagan included a measure requiring the city to launch public information campaigns on where abortion services can be accessed as well as a provision making it illegal for city resources to be used to help other states enforce abortion restrictions.

Mayor Adams signed the legislative package into law a month after its passage, and it took effect this past August.

Asked how he squares his previous voting record with his newfound anti-abortion stance, Kagan told the Daily News on Wednesday that he regrets supporting the 2022 bills.

“There are some votes I wish I could take back, that is one of them,” said Kagan, who’s running in the Nov. 7 election to represent a district that includes Bay Ridge and Coney Island. “As the father of two beautiful children, I believe abortions should be legal, safe and rare in the case of rape, incest and harm to the mother. Though the City Council will not be taking steps to ban abortions, I can stand on my convictions and not have the need to make it a political weapon.”

Some of Kagan’s fellow Council Republicans did not go as far as him in their NYC Votes questionnaires.

Staten Island Councilman Joe Borelli, the Council’s Republican minority leader who voted against the abortion rights package in 2022, stated on his questionnaire that he is “pro-life,” but added: “It’s unclear what authority, if any, the city has on this issue.”

Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola, who also voted against the 2022 package, wrote in her form: “Having children and grandchildren, I believe in the sanctity of life, as well as women having access to good healthcare and educational tools that explain healthcare options.”

Protecting abortion access is widely popular in New York, according to polling. A Siena College survey from last year found that 60% of New Yorkers statewide wanted the Supreme Court to uphold the Roe ruling, while just 24% supported its repeal.

Asked for comment on Kagan’s abortion flip flop, Diplah Shah, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York’s PAC, said it’s “imperative that New Yorkers demonstrate the power of our vote come November.”

“We must elect reproductive rights champions to every level of office, not ones who stigmatize access to essential life-saving services,” Shah said.

Kagan is facing Democratic Councilman Justin Brannan in next month’s election over who will get to represent the Council’s 47th District. The race is considered one of the most competitive in this year’s local election cycle.

Brannan, who describes himself as “pro-choice” in his NYC Votes questionnaire, blasted Kagan’s support for an elective abortion ban as a “shockingly aggressive and unacceptable stance in our community and in New York City.”

“What Ari Kagan stands for is nothing short of governmental cruelty and totalitarian control over women, their bodies, their families, and their healthcare,” Brannan said. “The women of southern Brooklyn deserve better than this troglodyte.”