Save the Date! The BPCLC Legislative Breakfast will be on Tuesday, February 12th, 8:00-9:30am, in Room 104A of the Legislative Office Building. Please join the BPCLC to discuss policy priorities for this session and welcome our newest caucus members! The full invitation flier and a list of recently-joined members of the Caucus are available after the jump. Flier for the Legislative Breakfast: And the Caucus welcomes our new members, including:
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More than 400 women’s health advocates gathered at the state capitol Monday, Jan. 14, for Family Planning Advocates' Annual Day of Action. They urged the passage of the Reproductive Health Act and other important women's equality legislation that Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for in his State of the State message. Many BPCLC members were present to speak and show their support for the Reproductive Health Act.
Selected news coverage: As we gear up for the new legislative session, the BPCLC welcomes new pro-choice members to join the caucus and push for legislation that furthers women’s reproductive health. We are inspired by the fact that women comprised a critical voting bloc in this year’s election. Abortion and access to contraceptives were key issues for female voters in races at every level.
However, a record number of states continued to chip away at abortion rights in 2012 -- so we must lead on reproductive health here in New York State. We'll kick off this year's efforts early: with a day of action in the first working week of the session! Monday, January 14, 2013 Day of Action: Family Planning Advocates, Planned Parenthood of New York City, and hundreds of women's health advocates will gather in Albany for their annual Day of Action.
Following up on our involvement in the debate over contraceptive coverage in the Affordable Care Act earlier this year, the BPCLC's co-chairs wrote this week to the federal agencies considering additional rule changes regarding contraceptive coverage for employees of religiously-affiliated institutions. We argue forcefully that any further accomodations must be tailored and designed to ensure employees remain covered, so no more barriers are placed between Americans and affordable, accessible contraceptive coverage and reproductive healthcare.
You can download the letter here or read it below: 2012-06-19 - BPCLC Comments on Contraceptive Coverage for ANPRM For our Second Annual Legislative Conference, we invite you to a roundtable discussion with the Bipartisan Pro-Choice Legislative Caucus and pro-choice experts. The subject: why we need to modernize New York State’s reproductive health laws and pass the Reproductive Health Act!
Other states across the country continue to chip away at women’s reproductive rights. Now more than ever, New York must once again lead on protecting women’s health and preserving reproductive rights. Join Us:
The Albany Times Union covered this week's Concerned Clergy for Choice press conference at the capitol:
“Our lawmakers want to understand our faith perspectives,” said the baptist Reverend Larry Phillips of Schenectady. “That people of faith do favor abortion laws that protect the health, the well-being of women and their loved ones, especially the Reproductive Health Act, which will also protect the religious liberty of New Yorkers.” Rev. Laurena Marie Wickham Will spoke about her church, the First Presbyterian Church in Ogdensburg, and their support for Planned Parenthood and women’s reproductive health over the past few decades. The BPCLC's signature priority this year is the Reproductive Health Act, sponsored by caucus co-chair Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assemblymember Deborah Glick. The bill would modernize New York's outdated public health law, bringing reproductive health under the public health law and codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade in state law.
But now the bill is under attack -- it is one of a host of bills that the state Senate majority has put in "a very dark vault," as BPCLC member Senator Dan Squadron put it, speaking to reporters today. It was one of hundreds of bills pulled from their committees today by the Senate majority, taken off the timetable for committee consideration and a committee vote, and put into the Rules Committee, presumably to run out of the clock and prevent them from getting an up or down vote. Members of the BPCLC come from both parties and every region of the state. It is a shame that the Senate's leadership have chosen to make this a partisan issue and take the Reproductive Health Act off track. Cardinal Timothy Dolan also came to Albany this week to pressure legislators against the Reproductive Health Act, as well. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, originally a New Yorker, gave an impassioned speech on access to contraception and reproductive healthcare last week, and posed the question: if the U.S. Senate were 83 women and 17 men, and not the other way around, would a bill like the 'Blunt Amendment' even make it to the floor?
The BPCLC was active during last week's charged debate over contraception.
Our caucus' new co-chairs penned a joint op ed in today's Albany Times Union, thanking him for sticking to principle on contraceptive coverage. Our co-chairs wrote: Both in its initial decision and in efforts late last week to accommodate religious concerns, the White House has held to a key principle: reproductive health care is legitimate health care, and all Americans have a right to accessible, affordable health care. Reacting to the tremendous pressure on the president to exclude many women from this benefit, BPCLC members also sent an open letter to President Obama late last week, urging him to stand strong for contraceptive coverage.
The BPCLC is pleased to announce the election of its first leadership team! Assemblymember Ellen Jaffee, Senator Liz Krueger, Assemblymember Teresa Sayward, and Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins will lead the caucus as co-chairs in the coming legislative session.
BPCLC Leadership Release by State Senator Liz Krueger on Scribd |
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