LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY
FCLNY is non-partisan, but works with diverse ideological and/or religious organizations that align with our goals.
New York State
Medical Aid in Dying Act
The Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAID) (S2445A/A995A) allows for ‘mentally competent’ ‘terminally ill’ people, beginning at age 18, to request and consume deadly medication that will end their lives. Versions of MAID were first introduced in the New York legislature in 2015, and consistently reintroduced during every subsequent legislative term, including in January of 2023. MAID is currently pending in the NYS Senate and Assembly Health Committees. Supermajorities in both houses lean in favor of MAID, and an imminent decision threatens the horizon and the dignity of human life at its natural end.
MAID dehumanizes and devalues the aged, diseased, and disabled.
MAID normalizes suicide and decriminalizes assisted suicide.
According to the National Council on Disability “The evidence strongly suggests that … safeguards are circumvented in ways that are harmful to patients.”
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NY’s pending MAID Act goes far out of its way to forbid referencing death by an intentional dose of lethal medication as a suicide, and to protect accomplices of such suicides from criminal prosecution. MAID clearly supports suicide and excuses assisted suicide for a select group of people. Webster’s dictionary defines suicide as “the act or instance of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionally.”
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MAID destigmatizes the gravity of suicide and undermines the value of human life. MAID is legal in ONLY eleven U.S. jurisdictions including Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado and Montana where suicide is a leading cause of death, including among youth.
“When assisted suicide is legalized it immediately becomes the cheapest treatment.” If health “insurers deny, or even simply delay approval of expensive life-sustaining treatment, patients can be steered toward hastening their deaths.”
"There is robust evidence, taken from different jurisdictions and using a variety of statistical methods, that the total number of self initiated deaths rises significantly where [Assisted Suicide] is legally available, and strong evidence that this has a greater impact on older women.”
A growing body of research demonstrates that a significant portion of terminally ill patients consider themselves a burden to family and others. The evidence also identifies "self-perceived burden" as a relevant factor in making
end of life and death-hastening decisions.
Numerous professional associations and organizations oppose ASSISTED SUICIDE, including, American Medical Association, World Medical Association, National Council on Disability, American Association of People with Disabilities and the Medical Society of the State of New York
URGENT CALL TO ACTION
Please call and email all THE LEGISLATORS IN THE HEALTH COMMITTEES OF THE NYS SENATE AND ASSEMBLY. Let them know you are a New Yorker and you oppose the passage of the
Medical Aid In Dying Act (MAID).
(Only participate if you are a NYS registered voter)
If you live in a district of a health committee member please be sure to say so.
Phone & Email Script
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Dear,
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Taking one's own life is suicide and helping someone commit suicide is criminal. Progressive societies promote life-affirming solutions, not the violent destruction of human life.
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I am a voting New Yorker and I oppose Medical Aid In Dying.
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I urge you to vote against MAID
(S.2445A/A.995A).
Sincerely,
NYS Equal Rights Amendment
The (Anti) ‘Equal Rights Amendment’ to the New York State Constitution is scheduled for a referendum vote on Tuesday, November 5th, 2024.
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SUMMARY:
Provides that no person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws of this state or any subdivision thereof; provides no person shall, because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed, religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, reproductive healthcare and autonomy, be subjected to any discrimination in their civil rights by any other person or by any firm, corporation, or institution, or by the state or any agency or subdivision of the state.
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Amending the constitution is a 3 part process, and NY's 'Equal Rights Amendment' is 2/3 of the way through:
1. The NYS Legislature favorably voted to pass the amendment in June of 2022 (S51002/A41002)
2. The NYS Legislature favorably voted to pass the amendment again in January of 2023 (S108A/A1283)
3. The amendment is scheduled to be on the ballot for New Yorkers to vote upon, November 5, 2024.
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While there is no explicit reference to abortion, some of the amendment's ramifications and impacts include:
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If the amendment to the NY Constitution is approved in November of 2024, abortion will be officially codified
in NY. Abortion rights will be woven into the fabric of our neighborhoods, communities, towns and cities.
Perhaps, most poignantly, the “right” to kill unborn children will be sewn into the hearts and minds of FUTURE
GENERATIONS AND GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PRACTICES.
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If the amendment to the NY Constitution is approved in November of 2024, children in utero will be completely
and utterly dehumanized and denied any and all protection from extermination.
If the amendment to the NY Constitution is approved in November of 2024, all unborn children, regardless of age,
sex, disability, gender or race, will be at risk of lethal violence. Living pre-born children will be in danger of death
more than ever before in human history.
If the amendment to the NY Constitution is approved in November of 2024, all common-sense standards regard-
ing abortion and the well-being of women will be in jeopardy.
If the amendment to the NY Constitution is approved in November of 2024, NY bills addressing abortion, except
to further expand, protect and deregulate abortion will more likely than not be considered “unconstitutional” including
abortion related requirements such as: parental notification, informed consent, wait periods, state health department
tracking, reporting and publishing of abortion complication data, annual state health department inspections of all
abortion providing facilities, pregnancy ultrasounds, adoption service referrals, pre and post abortion counseling.
SUNY/ CUNY Medication Abortion
*State University of New York (SUNY), City University of New York (CUNY)
This law requires SUNY and CUNY to provide access to chemical abortions to “all enrolled students,” and at all campus student health centers.
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Signed by NYS Governor, May 2, 2023
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NYS Senate- S.1213 Passed on April 19th, 2023
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NYS Assembly- A. 01395 Passed April 18th, 2023
The justifications for the proposed law on the state governments' websites cite Planned Parenthood- and ignore any potential complications of chemical abortions or the known risks associated with abortion pills, especially when utilized without pre-abortion ultrasound technology.
Science demonstrates: Abortion pills are four times riskier than surgical abortions, and elevate the likelihood of health complications for women and girls. Medication abortions are over fifty percent (50%) more likely than surgical abortions to result in a visit to an emergency department within thirty (30) days post-abortion; impacting one in twenty (20) females.
The risks of chemical abortion include hemorrhaging, fever, incomplete abortion, and other complications such as, infection, endometritis, pelvic inflammatory disease, on-going pregnancy, and uterine rupture. More than ten percent (10%) of women who undergo chemical abortions need follow up treatment for incomplete or failed abortions.
The dangers of medication abortionincrease as the embryo grows, and are potentially lethal for women and girls experiencing ectopic pregnancies. On average, almost forty percent (40%) of women ingesting abortion pills during their second trimester of pregnancy require surgery. NY fails to require ultrasounds occur pre chemical abortions, the surest, most reliable and accurate method for determining the gestational age of an unborn child or whether a pregnancy is ectopic.
Further, simply dispensing chemical abortions, without adequate safeguards, also impedes the ability to detect and address any coercion that may have been exerted on a woman to abort her child. Studies show a sizable percentage of women who undergo abortion are coerced to do so by violent intimate partnersand/or sex traffickers.
Feminists Choosing Life of New York opposes chemical abortion and abortion pill dispensaries on college campuses.
According to established scientific consensus, human beings begin their lives at conception, according to established scientific consensus. Over 328,770 unborn children died by chemical abortion in 2020 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute.
We are currently gearing up to work with Democratic and Republican NY legislators to propose bills during the 2023 - 2024 legislative session that include:
1. An abortion related informed consent bill.
2. A bill that requires the tracking, reporting & publishing of abortion complication data.
3. A proposed law that requires every health care facility that accepts Medicaid to post human trafficking and domestic violence hotlines.
​The RHA Degrades Women and Dehumanizes Children.
New York enacted the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) in January, 2019. This law allows for the killing of viable unborn children, including healthy children in utero, for any reason within 24 weeks of pregnancy. Modern medical science is clear that unborn children can be viable (capable of survival outside the womb) as early as 21 weeks gestation.
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The RHA permits killing viable unborn children, including healthy children in utero, during the later-second and third trimester of pregnancy for reasons unrelated to a mother's physical health. In NY, approximately 1,600 unborn children are aborted each year at 20+ weeks gestation. Studies show most later-term abortions are 'elective,' performed on healthy pregnant women and healthy unborn children.
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The RHA did away with NY's longstanding fetal homicide law. Because of the RHA it is no longer a separate crime in NY for abusers to kill viable unborn children, including wanted unborn children, in attacks on their mothers.
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The RHA allows for an undefined group of health care practitioners to perform abortions, including surgical, second and third trimester abortions. Studies show that even mid-level health care providers that perform abortions have higher rates of “incomplete abortion,” uterine “perforation” and “hemorrhage” than physicians performing abortions.
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The RHA eradicated NY Public Health Law (PHL) 4164, without enacting any form of replacement. In NY, later-second and third trimester abortions can occur in facilities other than hospitals, ambulatory centers or physicians' offices. According to studies, including, Risk Factors for Legal Induced Abortion-Related Mortality in the United States, the "risk of death" for "women obtaining legally induced abortions" "increase[s] exponentially by 38% for each additional week of gestation.”
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Further, eliminating PHL 4164 allows for infants who survive abortion to die without adequate "medical care" or without a second physician present to care for that infant. According to the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention children are sometimes born alive during later-term induced abortions.
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International
World Beyond War Declaration of Peace
FCLNY Organizational Signer
We seek positive and sustainable peace, founded on justice
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“We understand that wars and militarism make us less safe rather than protect us, that they kill, injure and traumatize adults, children and infants, severely damage the natural environment, erode civil liberties, and drain our economies, siphoning resources from life-affirming activities. We commit to engage in and support nonviolent efforts to end all war and preparations for war and to create a sustainable and just peace.”
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Please consider signing with us as an individual or organization.