Women’s Rights Advocates Condemn Schneiderman After Allegations of Abuse

For years, Eric Schneiderman was considered a champion of women’s causes. Now some advocates are having second thoughts –and then some.

Just last week during a luncheon at the Ziegfield Ballroom in midtown Manhattan, the National Institute for Reproductive Health awarded the then-attorney general the Champion of Choice Award for being a vocal proponent for abortion access and contraceptives.

"If a woman does not have the right control her own body she is not truly equal," Schneiderman said when accepting the honor.

On Tuesday, after The New Yorker published in their online edition detailed allegations by four women that he had physically abused them, the group announced it would revoke the award.

"No amount of public good works can ever excuse the kind of private abuse that these women experienced," Andrea Miller, the institute's president, told WNYC. "This is simultaneously heartbreaking and infuriating."

While Schneiderman has denied the allegations of abuse, the reproductive rights group was not alone in condemning the former New York attorney general.

Sonia Ossorio, head of the New York City Chapter of the National Organization for Women, expressed both anger and frustration. She described working with Schneiderman when he served in the state Senate — leading efforts to oust former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate  after he was accused of slashing his girlfriend, and advancing legislation to increase the criminal penalty for strangulation.

But Ossorio said these allegations included in The New Yorker are another example of a powerful man who abused his power with impunity.

On Tuesday night, Gov. Andrew Cuomo appointed the district attorney from Nassau County as a special prosecutor to investigate if Schneiderman's alleged abuse violated any laws.