The original schedule for the day the Spitzer scandal broke was emblematic of the Spitzer family commitment to women’s reproductive choice. That day, the Governor was expected to speak at a family planning conference. That night, his wife, Silda Wall, was to be a featured guest at the Women’s Campaign Forum fundraiser—a group committed to getting pro-choice women elected to office. The loss of Governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned this week, is a powerful blow to the New York choice community.

Spitzer resigned following a sex scandal. He appears to have been snagged in an undercover investigation of a high-priced prostitution ring. There were ironies – and tragedies – galore. As attorney general, Spitzer had prosecuted at least one high-priced prostitution ring. Some hoped that he might survive the scandal. But Spitzer himself seemed to be among the first to realize that he couldn’t. He had long been a combination of righteous and self-righteous, and for a time a crusader we trusted. He’d been swept into office with a 70 percent majority, and the full and enthusiastic backing of the pro-choice community. His involvement in what was an illegal act tipped the scales. He no longer seemed the person he said he was.

While we have high hopes that his successor, David Paterson, will continue the work of ensuring New York women will always have access to family planning, such commitment was innate to Spitzer. He was raised by a leader in the reproductive rights world. His mother Anne Spitzer, a board member of New York Naral, clearly inculcated in her children that reproductive rights are essential to the freedom of women (and by extension, the freedom of men.)

I, like all of Spitzer’s fans, am deeply saddened that we will not witness the many victories he, and his wife, Silda, would win for women. He has paid dearly for his mistake. But the loss is ours too.