New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms (NYCF) works toward public policy goals that are consistent with Biblical ethics and with the principles expressed in the United States Constitution. NYCF’s legislative agenda encompasses four core values—protecting human life, promoting strong families, preserving religious liberty, and proclaiming justice and mercy.
Protecting Human Life
Protecting Human Life
The Bible teaches that each person is made in the image of God, and that human life is sacred. Abortion is morally wrong, is the primary justice issue of the 21st century, and should be unlawful unless it is medically necessary to save a mother's life. Given the unfortunate legality of abortion, NYCF supports legislative proposals that would make abortion significantly rarer. Specifically, NYCF supports legislation that would require waiting periods, informed consent, and prior ultrasounds, that would make taxpayer funding unavailable for abortion, that would ban sex selection abortion, and that would mandate parental involvement in abortion decisions made by minors. NYCF also supports legislative efforts to provide legal protections for unborn children and for children born alive following abortions. NYCF opposes abortifacient pills and the morning-after pill. NYCF supports legislation to protect against human cloning, embryo-destructive stem cell research, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.
Promoting Strong Families
Promoting Strong Families
Marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman, and each child should–whenever wise and possible–be raised in a stable family unit by his or her own mother and father. The primary public purpose of marriage is to provide safety, stability and provision for children. In light of the marriage crisis in our society, as well as the impact of that crisis upon children's health and well-being, NYCF advocates legislative, civic, and faith-based efforts to promote and encourage marriage. NYCF also supports legislative and other efforts to remove economic disincentives to marriage, to discourage divorce, to streamline the adoption and foster parenting processes, and to uphold parental rights. NYCF favors abstinence education and opposes “comprehensive” sex education initiatives. NYCF opposes plural marriage and any other effort to legally redefine the institution of marriage. NYCF also supports strong legal provisions in regard to prostitution, pornography, and obscenity, all of which endanger women and children and degrade human dignity.
Preserving Religious Liberty
Preserving Religious Liberty
The First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the free exercise of religion are fundamental. Accordingly, NYCF opposes all initiatives that seek to limit those rights, and supports equal access for Christian students and for churches and Christian groups that use public buildings. NYCF supports public acknowledgments of religion that do not offend the First Amendment’s protections against an establishment of religion. NYCF opposes unconstitutional efforts to mandate church taxation. In accordance with our support for religious liberty, NYCF opposes any legislative or other initiatives which would incorporate religious legal systems that are incompatible with American values into New York law.
Proclaiming Justice and Mercy
Proclaiming Justice and Mercy
NYCF advocates freedom and justice for those who experience oppression. NYCF also supports the bedrock American principle of equality of opportunity. Thus, NYCF supports educational choice, urban renewal efforts that result in empowerment rather than dependency, stronger penalties to deter crime, enhanced efforts to crack down on human trafficking, and real reform of a political process that currently enables corruption. NYCF opposes state-sponsored predatory gambling, special legal protections based on the amorphous categories of sexual orientation and gender identity, and policies that encourage or reward illegal immigration.