The mission of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms (NYCF) is to influence legislation and legislators for the Lord Jesus Christ. Legislatively, we work at the state level to protect human life, promote strong families, preserve religious liberty, and proclaim justice and mercy.
In each odd-numbered year, NYCF releases a legislative agenda and distributes it to all 213 members of the New York State Legislature. Our legislative agenda lays out a set of policy priorities driven by our mission and by the Word of God. NYCF’s 2023-2024 Legislative Agenda sets forth public policies that we wish to advance as well as public policies we wish to oppose.
NYCF’s Protecting Human Life agenda calls for the passage of the Respect the Unborn Act (RUA). The RUA would make third-trimester abortions unlawful, and would ban all other abortions unless the continuation of a pregnancy would jeopardize the life of a mother. In addition, the agenda urges the Legislature to establish a new Office of Hospice and Palliative Care Access and Quality. The agenda reaffirms NYCF’s longstanding opposition to assisted suicide, opposes further abortion-expanding measures, and opposes legislation that would punish pro-life pregnancy centers.
The Promoting Strong Families section of the agenda calls for the Legislature to protect children and youth against pornography and “sex reassignment” treatments. The agenda also includes support for a longtime NYCF priority: Passage of a tax deduction for parents who adopt special-needs children or who adopt children through the foster care system. The agenda urges the Legislature to pass a parental rights amendment to the New York State Constitution and opposes mandatory human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for youth, mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for students, and mandatory non-abstinence-based sex education in schools.
In regard to the preservation of religious liberty, the agenda calls for the passage of the Worship Is Essential Act, which would protect the free exercise of religion from being infringed upon during public health emergencies. The agenda also opposes state efforts to coerce faith-based hospitals, faith-based schools, and other faith-based charities into violating their own beliefs on abortion, homosexuality, and gender identity.
NYCF’s Proclaiming Justice and Mercy agenda includes support for measures on diverse topics such as COVID-19, infant drug addiction, poverty, human trafficking and crime. NYCF calls for a law allowing judges to order the pretrial detention of arrestees based upon findings of dangerousness. The agenda also opposes the legalization of prostitution, additional gambling casinos, online poker, automatic sealing of criminal convictions, and socialized medicine.