Archive for June, 2010
Good Job NYS Assembly – Now We Need the Senate!
June 17th, 2010 by catherineYou called and you signed our petition,
and they listened!
Please thank our local Assembly representatives who stood up for women today:
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky
Assemblywoman Sandra Galef
Assemblywoman Amy Paulin
Assemblyman Gary Pretlow
Now we must turn our attention to the NYS Senate!
WITH YOUR HELP, we have a chance to pass the most important bill for New York’s women since 1970, the Reproductive Health Act.
Call Your Senator Today!!!
Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousin (Bill Sponsor)
Senator Suzie Oppenheimer
Senator Jeff Klein
The following senators need particular encouragement:
Senator Vincent Leibell
Senator James Alesi
Senator John Bonacic
Senator William Larkin
Senator James Seward
Senator Joseph Robach
Ask Them to Support the Reproductive Health Act!
Abortion Foes Advance Cause at State Level
June 3rd, 2010 by janeyIn the New York Times Today:
About 370 state bills regulating abortion were introduced in 2010, compared with about 350 in each of the previous five years, and 250 a year in the early 1990s, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. At least 24 of this year’s bills have passed, and the final total may reach the high of 2005, when states passed 34 laws, said Elizabeth Nash, a public policy associate at the institute.
More significant than the number of bills introduced are the number and nature of those that passed, partisans on both sides agree.
“What’s different is that bills of serious consequence have actually passed,” said Nancy Northrup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, who characterized the volume of legislation as “an avalanche.” Already the center has brought suits to challenge six laws, more than in any other year since the 1990s.
Tennessee, which had not passed restrictions on abortion since 2003, passed two laws, one banning coverage of abortion in health insurance exchanges. The other requires clinics to post signs stating it is illegal to coerce a woman to have an abortion; 11 other states introduced similar legislation.
“This is a good year as far as victories,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee, who named several states, including Arizona, Missouri and Tennessee, that are now more open to restrictive laws. “I do get the impression that the climate is friendlier.”
