New York has led the nation in laws that protect access to abortion and related treatment since before Roe v. Wade — so it's not often at the top of voters' minds in the state.

The ongoing national debate on the issue doesn't seem to be changing that after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe this summer and the constitutional right to an abortion granted in 1973.

The court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision June 24 returned legalizing the issue to individual states.

Since then, New York Democrats mobilized on a campaign platform to protect reproductive rights, helping them win a pivotal congressional special election in August.

"They're trying to tap into enthusiasm and anger and propel their party members to turn out and certainly Democrats have that sentiment," said Luke Perry, a political science professor at Utica University. "Reproductive rights are certainly an animating issue for Democrats, but I don't think it appears to be incredibly impactful in the statewide election."

Gov. Kathy Hochul has tried to leverage that momentum as the Democratic nominee in the race for governor over the past several months.

She continued that focus even as a Quinnipiac University poll earlier this month showed about 6% of New York voters say abortion is the top issue facing the state. 

"I'm terrified Lee Zeldin could become governor," Dr. Katharine Morrison, a women's health provider in Central New York, said on a Friends For Kathy Hochul advertisement released about three weeks ago.

Inflation, public safety and protecting democracy top the list of important issues for New Yorkers. About 28% of voters in the state say crime is the state's top issue, followed by 20% for inflation, according to the Quinnipiac University poll.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin, a congressman from Long Island, has continued to focus his campaign ads on public corruption, crime and inflation. 

A Zeldin For New York campaign ad released around the same time as Hochul's on reproductive rights shows security footage of people assaulted by another person, or a person with a handgun.

"You're looking at actual violent crimes caught on camera in Kathy Hochul's New York," a female narrator says during the ad.

Julie Novkov, a political science and women's and gender studies professor at UAlbany, said abortion is mobilizing voters differently in other states. 

New York was one of the first states to decriminalize abortion in 1970, or three years before Roe v. Wade. Lawmakers never voted to roll back or change the statute. 

The 2019 Reproductive Health Act codified most of Roe​ into the state constitution.

"It's pretty easy to feel like this is a right that is very deeply rooted in the DNA of New York and New Yorkers and that there's really not anything that could shake it loose," Novkov said Friday. "At least not in the short-term."

New York is home to pivotal moments in women's history, such as the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 that gave rise to the fight for women's suffrage.

Even so, New Yorkers' apathy to vote on the heels of the recent federal reproductive health debate doesn't surprise Novkov.

"New York Republicans are not Mississippi Republicans or Idaho Republicans," she said. "A lot of Republicans in New York may not personally like abortion, but they're more cautious about broad and even the kind of radical restrictions that we're seeing going forward in other states."

Hochul held events about public safety several times this week as recent polling shows the governor's race tightening as people continue to be concerned about the economy, high cost of living and inflation and reducing crime.

"Some say it's a bit late to start doing this, but better late than never," Perry said.

​Novkov said various political scientists and experts have noted polling will be difficult to gauge this midterm election with expected record turnout. People who agree to respond to a poll tend to be politically engaged, she added, and not among the group of independent or undecided voters who make a difference in a close race.

"It all comes down to which party is more successful at getting people to come in [and vote]," Novkov said. "In terms of the role that abortion will play in that, I think we have yet to see how that's going to work."