FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMedia Contact: Michele Sterlace-Accorsi, January 20, 2025 716 864 1454, info@fclny.org
Albany, NY – Governor Kathy Hochul delivered the 2025 State of the State address to New Yorkers on Tuesday, January 14. Hochul proposed many statewide policies that focused on making life for New York families more affordable, including a proposed expanded child tax credit that would provide up to $1,000 per child under four years old and $500 for school-aged children, and a $110 million child care construction fund to build and repair affordable, accessible childcare options statewide. Hochul also gladly acknowledged the state’s First-in-the-Nation Paid Prenatal Leave Law, which increases access to prenatal care for pregnant women, effective January 1, 2025.
Feminists Choosing Life of New York (FCLNY), a human rights organization that educates on the consistent life ethic, issues the following commentary:
We applaud many of Governor Hochul’s long overdue efforts to reduce financial difficulties for families and to provide greater access to prenatal care for mothers in New York State. Expanded child tax credits and greater access to affordable, quality childcare are effective ways to help families afford their children’s daily needs. Prenatal care is essential to the health and well-being of mothers and unborn children. In addition to helping families, these measures have the incredible potential to incentivize motherhood in our state like never before. New York State faces significant demographic decline as recent population projections show our state could lose up to 2.7 million residents by 2050, fueled by mass exodus and shrinking birth rates. New York State needs families to grow and flourish!
However, FCLNY stands firmly opposed to New York State’s Paid Prenatal Leave Law’s despicable inclusion of increased access to elective abortion. Abortion hurts women and destroys human lives. By giving equal priority to increasing prenatal access and abortion access, Governor Hochul makes a mockery and false equivalency between life and death. If NY truly wants families to flourish it cannot accomplish this goal by killing future citizens. Considering the majority of women choose abortion because of the coercive effect of financial constraints, greater access to resources should always be prioritized over greater access to abortion.
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