Mary Modica was barely a teenager when she was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). With no regular health care and the internet still in its infancy, she turned to Planned Parenthood.
“Planned Parenthood kept me healthy and safe,” said Modica, a high school English as a New Language teacher who has taught in the Hudson Valley for 12 years. “I owe all of my advocacy abilities to the empowerment that Planned Parenthood gave me at such an early age.”
Modica was among the Rockland County residents who gathered Wednesday night at The Local Tap House of Nyack for a Planned Parenthood Votes watch party, where supporters watched Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and Democratic challenger Cait Conley meet for their final debate before the Nov. 3 election.
The race for New York’s 17th Congressional District is among the most consequential in the country. Lawler represents one of only three districts held by a Republican that Kamala Harris carried in 2024, and the outcome could help decide control of the House.
The vote Lawler didn’t address
Lawler voted twice for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, first when the House passed it by a single vote in May 2025 and again when the chamber approved the Senate’s version in July. The sweeping Republican tax and spending law barred Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements for a year.
The provision also blocked payments for routine care such as cancer screenings and birth control, and Planned Parenthood reported that 20 of its clinics nationwide closed during the defunding period. New York shielded its clinics from the worst of it. In October 2025, Gov. Kathy Hochul committed roughly $35 million in state funds to replace the lost federal dollars for the state’s 47 Planned Parenthood health centers, which serve more than 200,000 patients a year.
The provision lapsed on July 4, and Planned Parenthood clinics resumed billing Medicaid for non-abortion care the next day. But the fight has resumed. House Speaker Mike Johnson is planning a new budget package aimed at defunding the organization again.
At the candidates’ first debate on News 12 in September, Conley confronted the issue directly.
“We absolutely need to codify Roe v. Wade,” Conley said, accusing Lawler of enabling a war on women’s health care “by doing things like voting for restrictions on federal funding to Planned Parenthood, one of the largest providers of healthcare to working women in the country.”
Lawler answered with his opposition to a national abortion ban.
“I am against a federal ban on abortion. I have said that repeatedly and would not support legislation to do that,” Lawler said, adding that he had “pushed back against the effort to ban access to mifepristone” and introduced legislation expanding access to IVF.
He did not address his voting record on reproductive rights. In 2025, he supported the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would require providers to give infants born alive after an attempted abortion the same care as any other newborn, under threat of criminal penalties. He also voted for a Republican health care bill that abortion-rights advocates say would bar abortion coverage in certain insurance plans. Reproductive Freedom for All, a national abortion-rights group, gave Lawler a score of 0% on reproductive rights votes in 2025.
Lawler has otherwise sought to keep abortion off the campaign agenda. When a reporter for the Washington outlet NOTUS asked him in March whether Republicans should focus on the issue ahead of November, he replied, “No.” Reproductive rights drew no exchange at Wednesday’s final debate on PIX11.
Lawler’s party has made that harder. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced legislation to revoke federal approval of mifepristone for abortions and is pressing Republican candidates to sign a pledge calling for a national response to medication abortion.
Lawler’s campaign did not respond to Courier New York’s request for comment.
‘They really changed my life’
Modica, who appeared in a Planned Parenthood ad campaign urging voters to reject Lawler, said the defunding vote explains the urgency she feels this fall.
“He voted and worked hard to defund Planned Parenthood,” she said. “Abortions are not just about stopping an unwanted pregnancy. It’s also about preserving the health and wellness of the person carrying the embryo.”
Valerie Espejo, a real estate agent from New City, said Planned Parenthood gave her the guidance she couldn’t find elsewhere as a teenager. At 17, she said, a school nurse steered her toward a birth control shot that took a toll on her physical and mental health. A visit to Planned Parenthood led her to an IUD, and she has gone there for her care ever since.
“I went into Planned Parenthood, and I learned more about myself, and I learned more about my body, and I was able to actually make decisions for myself,” said Espejo. “They really changed my life.”
Espejo also sees the race through the lens of her work. Rockland’s cost of living “has now skyrocketed to kind of match the city,” she said, and the young people she meets increasingly can’t afford to buy homes where they grew up.
“A firefighter, a teacher, someone who has devoted their life into building what Rockland County is now, should be able to afford a home where they work,” she said.
Alec, a civil engineer from Sparkill who asked to be identified by his first name, has donated to Planned Parenthood every month for roughly a decade. He framed the election in simpler terms.
“People say they’re not political,” he said. “[If] you vote, you’re political.”
‘It’s dire, and it’s lifesaving’
For Planned Parenthood, the threat is existential. The one-year defunding shuttered clinics across the country, and Republican leaders are maneuvering to revive it.
Anna Brand, the organization’s advocacy coordinator for Rockland and Putnam counties, said the defunding fight has driven supporters to her events in growing numbers.
“People are nervous and want to come out and do more for us because of what’s going on,” Brand said.
She said the organization fills a gap that private care leaves open.
“Gynecologists are expensive. We are a space for everyone to be able to come and get their care,” Brand said. “We need people that support us, that are willing to fund us … It’s dire, and it’s lifesaving.”
Early voting in New York begins Oct. 24.
