Congressional Candidate Julian Schreibman: Republican Attacks on Women's Rights are Unacceptable

February 27, 2012, Kingston, NY — Attacks on women's rights are unacceptable, says former federal prosecutor Julian Schreibman, Democrat, candidate for Congress from NY-22.

The US Senate is poised to vote this week on a Republican-sponsored provision that would allow employers to effectively restrict their employees' access to any kind of basic health coverage – including access to birth control — that the boss decides is immoral.

"In Washington and around the country, Republicans are doing everything they can to make it more difficult for women to get birth control and more painful to exercise their right to reproductive choice.

"Legislators in Virginia proposed that women be forced to submit to medical procedures that are both invasive and medically unnecessary, in order to 'educate' them about their own health decisions. It's time for these mostly male politicians to end their war on women's health.

"Nearly 50 years ago, the Supreme Court held that governments could not block access to contraception, and nearly 40 years ago it affirmed women's reproductive rights. These rights are not only fundamental to women's health, they are essential to women's standing as full and equal citizens. Days of protest opposing the deeply offensive Virginia legislation, and the decisive defeat last November of Mississippi's "personhood" amendment, are clear signs that citizens of this country will not allow their rights to be revoked.

"Apparently, Republicans don't care. Their disregard for women was on full display last week at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on contraception policy, at which every single witness was a man. A proposed female witness was barred from testifying because the Republican Chairman decided she was not an 'appropriate' witness. Meanwhile, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum has denounced the 'dangers' of contraception as 'counter to how things are supposed to be.'


"These words and deeds demonstrate profound disrespect for women. But these extreme attacks are more than disrespectful: they propose to turn back the clock to the days when women were considered incapable of making any important decisions about their own lives and health. GOP policies would make women second-class citizens. This is completely and absolutely unacceptable. If elected to serve in Washington, I will be an unwavering defender of women's fundamental rights."


Ulster County native Julian Schreibman is running to succeed retiring Democrat Maurice Hinchey.

Julian is running to represent our upstate communities in Washington; to work for a strong economy with prosperity built on good jobs; for a fair tax system in which the wealthy don't pay lower rates than American workers; for effective oversight of our financial industry; and to resist special deals for the powerful and the privileged.

Julian Schreibman served as a federal prosecutor, fighting drug trafficking and white collar crime, as an Assistant General Counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency working on international terrorism cases, among others, and as Ulster County Senior Assistant District Attorney. Julian received the Distinguished Service Award from the US Attorney General for assisting in the prosecution and conviction of four al Qaeda terrorists for the bombing of two U.S. embassies (United States v. Osama bin Laden).

Julian is a graduate of Kingston High School, Yale College and Yale Law School. He lives in Stone Ridge, NY, with his wife, Shannon, and their three young boys. His mother, Anne Hebard, still lives in the Ulster County home where he grew up.