Posts by Albany Update
Making Indigent Funds Available to Planned Parenthood S.470-Rivera/A.1080-Glick
The proposed legislation would make Planned Parenthood clinics eligible for bad debt and charity care funds. Given that Planned Parenthood’s worldwide operation boasts over $1 billion in assets, and given that Planned Parenthood already receives hundreds of millions in public funds, the organization is not in need of additional monies. More importantly, Planned Parenthood is…
Read MoreGender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) (the Bathroom Bill) (S.1047 – Hoylman/A.747 – Gottfried)
The Gender Expression Nondiscrimination Act (GENDA), also known as the Bathroom Bill, makes “gender identity or expression” a protected category under New York’s Human Rights Law. GENDA requires New York’s shopping malls, stores, universities, restaurants, and recreational facilities—along with many other public places—to accommodate crossdressing and so-called gender transitions by allowing biological males to access…
Read MoreIn re: Banning Professionals from Engaging in Sexual Orientation Change Efforts With Youth Experiencing Unwanted Same-Sex Attraction (the Counselor Coercion Bill) (S.1046–Hoylman/A.576–Glick)
The Counselor Coercion Bill seeks to ban mental health professionals from engaging in sexual orientation change efforts—or “change therapy”—with minors. This bill is based on flawed assumptions, is unduly invasive, suffers from constitutional problems, and would interfere with the professional judgment and freedom of conscience of mental health professionals. The Counselor Coercion Bill was signed…
Read MoreBoss Bill (S.660–Metzger/A.584–Jaffee)
The Boss Bill would make it unlawful for employers—including faith-based charities—to adopt and enforce pro-life employee conduct policies. This ill-advised piece of legislation is both completely unnecessary and unduly restrictive of the religious liberty of faith-based charities. Download
Read MoreComprehensive Contraception Coverage Act (S.659-A–Salazar/A.585-A–Cahill)
The Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act (CCCA) would require all group insurance policies issued or renewed after January 1, 2020 to cover abortion-causing drugs, voluntary sterilization procedures, and all other FDA-approved contraceptive devices without restrictions, copays, or cost sharing. The CCCA is wrong-headed on multiple fronts. It is disrespectful of human life and it would exacerbate…
Read MoreReproductive Health Act (Abortion Expansion) (S.240-Krueger/A.21-Glick)
The Reproductive Health Act (RHA) is an extreme and unnecessary piece of legislation that endangers women and unborn children. The RHA allows non-physicians to perform abortions, took abortion-related crimes off the books in cases where pregnant women miscarry after being assaulted, and repealed existing protections for children born alive following attempted late-term abortions. Taken together,…
Read MoreDivisive Social Issues in Gov. Cuomo’s Budget Proposal
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has littered his proposed 2019 New York State Budget with divisive social-issue legislation. That legislation includes an abortion pill insurance mandate, an Equal Rights Amendment that could create unanticipated negative consequences, a statute of limitations bill that would open the door to a barrage of frivolous lawsuits, and late-term abortion expansion. In…
Read MoreMaking Indigent Funding Available to Planned Parenthood (S.159-Rivera/A.3693-Glick)
Currently, the State of New York makes bad debt and charity care funds available to “diagnostic and treatment centers providing a comprehensive range of primary health care services” if “a minimum of five percent of total clinic visits reported during the applicable base year period were to uninsured individuals.” The existing law is designed to…
Read MoreState’s highest court rules there is no constitutional right to assisted suicide
The Legislative Gazette, September 7, 2017 “[Rev. Jason J. McGuire], executive director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, [says] the Court of Appeals ruling does three things.” “‘It demonstrates respect for the Constitution of the state of New York. Nothing in our state’s Constitution in any way affirms physician-assisted suicide, and the Court acknowledged that…
Read MoreThe case against a constitutional convention for New York
by Rev. Jason J. McGuire, Livingston County News, August 12, 2017 “While there are many potential constitutional amendments that would dramatically improve our state, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms opposes this year’s constitutional convention question.”
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