2010 News Releases
Anti-choice bills beaten back in Assembly Health Committee; pro-choice advocates urge passage of Reproductive Health Act
6.3.2010
Albany, NY June 3, 2010—Today, three anti-choice bills were beaten back in the Assembly Health Committee that would have had a detrimental impact on women’s health and safety in New York State. Pro-choice members of the committee stood strong, representing the pro-choice values of the Assembly and the majority of New Yorkers. Family Planning Advocates of New York State commends committee members on supporting a woman’s right to choose and now calls on lawmakers to pass the Reproductive Health Act.
“New York has a long and proud legacy of protecting reproductive rights,” said Family Planning Advocates President and CEO M. Tracey Brooks. “Today’s vote kept women’s health care and rights from sliding backward; New York must now be proactive to move women’s reproductive rights forward by passing the Reproductive Health Act.”
Forty years ago, New York was one of the first states in the nation to permit safe and legal abortion. While the law was groundbreaking at the time, it needs updating. Currently, health care providers and the women they serve are guided by the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision if a pregnancy goes awry or the woman becomes ill and abortion is an option to protect her health. New York’s law, passed in 1970, only protects a woman during pregnancy if her life is in danger.
While other states continue to pass laws that put the health and safety of women at risk, the Reproductive Health Act will ensure that the women of New York do not face the same fate. Kidney failure, diabetes, stroke, extremely high blood pressure and cancer are just a few of the complications that can occur during a pregnancy. As a result, women and their families are put in the position of making difficult decisions.
“This is a time when patients and their health care providers need to make the best decisions to preserve a woman’s health without having to consider conflicts between New York State law and federal case law. The Reproductive Health Act will ensure that,” Brooks said.
According to Brooks, the Reproductive Health Act also will place regulation of abortion care in the state’s public health code, removing it from the criminal code where it has been since before 1970. “Health care is governed in the state’s public health code. Women’s reproductive health care should not be treated any differently,” she asserted.
Additionally, the Reproductive Health Act guarantees everyone the right to use or refuse contraception. This will prevent any mandatory imposition of contraception to the women of New York by regulation or judicial ruling.
Family Planning Advocates of New York State is working with lawmakers to ensure the Reproductive Health Act becomes law for the benefit of the state’s women and families.
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