Nearly two weeks after his Republican adversary released an ad focused on abortion access, New York Democratic congressional candidate Josh Riley is firing back.

In a new 30-second ad obtained first by Spectrum News, the Riley campaign says incumbent Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro “doesn’t respect you enough to be honest” about his abortion stance.

The ad accuses Molinaro of casting votes that “strip away abortion rights,” pointing in particular to a series of votes dealing with a provision House Republicans included in a 2023 defense bill blocking a Pentagon policy that reimburses travel costs for troops seeking abortions. 

Several of the other votes cited in the ad were procedural, where the campaign says a House Democrat pledged to bring up an abortion-related bill if an unrelated procedural measure failed.

The ad launches Tuesday on broadcast and cable television plus streaming and digital platforms, according to the Riley campaign.

The rollout comes just weeks after the Molinaro campaign released its own 30-second spot seeking to take the abortion issue head on. In it, the Republican incumbent looks directly into the camera, saying, “I believe health decisions should be made between a woman and her doctor - not Washington.”

In the ad, Molinaro touts his support of a bill creating federal projections for IVF and contraception, and says he kept his “promise” to oppose a national abortion ban.

The fight over abortion rights is credited with helping limit Republican gains in the 2022 midterm elections, months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. The issue, however, arguably did not resonate as profoundly across New York, where state law already protects access to the procedure.

Molinaro and Riley are teed up for a rematch in New York’s 19th congressional district, which stretches from Ithaca to the Hudson Valley. The two ran against each other in 2022 as well.

The district is one of a handful of competitive seats across the country that Democrats are eying as potential pickup opportunities as they look to win control of the U.S. House this November.