LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY
Please help us SAVE HYDE! The Hyde Amendment is a bipartisan amendment, initially signed into law by Democratic President Jimmy Carter, and supported by President Obama. The HYDE Amendment helps prevent FEDERAL FUNDING OF ABORTION. Studies show that the Hyde Amendment has saved 2,000,000 lives since it was instituted. The current presidential administration wants to eliminate HYDE.
TAKE ACTION HERE!
FCLNY is non-partisan, but works with diverse ideological and/or religious organizations that align with our goals.
We are currently gearing up to work with Democratic and Republican NY legislators to propose bills during the 2023 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.
Back From the Brink
FCLNY Organizational Signer
Organizational Sign-On Letter in Support of H. Res. 77.
This Resolution Embraces the Goals and Provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
"In short the risk of nuclear war is all too real — perhaps greater than it has been since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 – threatening all of humanity. It’s well past time for the United States and the world to get serious about nuclear disarmament and to take steps to prevent nuclear war and reduce nuclear risks."
Please consider having your organization sign with us.
Medical Aid in Dying Act
Urgent Call to Action
The Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAID) is currently pending in the NYS legislature.
MAID (A995 /S2445) is lodged in the Health Committees of both NYS legislative chambers.
PLEASE CALL AND EMAIL MEMBERS OF THE HEALTH COMMITTEES IN THE NYS SENATE AND ASSEMBLY URGING THEM TO VOTE AGAINST MAID.
MAID dehumanizes and devalues the aged, diseased, and disabled.
MAID normalizes suicide and decriminalizes assisted suicide.
MAID allows for ‘mentally competent’ ‘terminally ill’ people, beginning at age 18, to request and consume deadly medication that will end their lives. Condoning the violent destruction of human beings is barbaric. Regardless of the pending bills' safeguards, MAID intrinsically allows for abuse and manipulation of vulnerable and suffering individuals.
MAID is a facade to promote suicide as an act of mercy.
According to the National Council on Disability “The evidence strongly suggests that … safeguards are circumvented in ways that are harmful to patients.”
Gallup polling demonstrates that support for assisted suicide is DECLINING. 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.”
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 and American Association of People with Disabilities.
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 NY Registered Voter)
If you live in a district of a health committee member please be sure to say so
PHONE & EMAIL SCRIPT
Dear,
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.
I am a voting New Yorker and I oppose Medical Aid In Dying.
I urge you to vote against MAID (A995/S2445).
Sincerely,
NYS SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE
NYS ASSEMBLY HEALTH COMMITTEE
Chair: J. Gustavo Rivera (D) District 33
(518) 455-3395
Samra G. Brouk (D) District 55
(518) 455-2215
Simcha Felder (D) District 22
(518) 455-2754
Brad Holyman Sigal (D) District 47
(518) 455-2451
John W. Mannion (D) District 50
(518) 455-3511
Rachel May (D) District 48
(518) 455-2838
Zellnor Myrie (D) District 20
(518) 455-2410
Julia Salazar (D) District 18
(518) 455-217
Kevin Thomas (D) District 6
(518) 455-3260
Lea Webb (D) District 52
(518) 455-2170
Patrick Gallivan (R) District 60
(518) 455-3471
Jacob Ashby (R) District 43
(518) 455-2381
Jack M. Martins (R) District 7
(518) 455-2677
Stephen D. Rhoads (R) District 5
(518) 455-3161
Daniel G. Stec (R) District 45
(518) 455-2811
Chair: Amy Paulin (D) District 88
(518) 455-5585
Scott Bendett (R) District 107
518-455-5777
Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn (R) District 42
518-455-5385
Jake Blumencranz (R) District 15
518-455-4684
Edward C. Braunstein (D) District 26
518-455-5425
Marjorie Byrnes (R) District 133
518-455-5662
Jeffrey Dinowitz (D) District 81
518-455-5965
Phara Souffrant Forrest (D) District 57
518-455-5325
Jarett Gandolfo (R) District 7
518-455-4611
Jessica González-Rojas (D) District 34
518-455-4545
Scott Gray (R) District 116
518-455-5545
Aileen M. Gunther (D) District 100
518-455-5355
Andrew Hevesi (D) District 28
518-455-4926
Josh Jensen (R) District 134
518-455-4664
Anna R. Kelles (D) District 125
518-455-5444
Nikki Lucas (D) District 60
518-455-5912
John T. McDonald III (D) District 108
518-455-4474
David G. McDonough (R) District 14
518-455-4633
John K. Mikulin (R) District 17
518-455-5341
Jenifer Rajkumar (D) District 38
518-455-4621
Karines Reyes (D) District 87
518-455-5102
Daniel Rosenthal (D) District 27
518-455-4404
Linda B. Rosenthal (D) District 67
518-455-5802
Nader J. Sayegh (D) District 90
518 455 3662
Michaelle C. Solages (D) District 22
518-455-4465
Phil Steck (D) District 110
518-455-5931
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
