Protecting Women's Health

  Join us because WOMEN’S HEALTH MATTERS

In the face of continued attacks on reproductive rights, New York’s laws need to be strengthened to protect women’s health and safety. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court set a new and dangerous precedent when it upheld an abortion restriction that eroded the protection of a woman’s health. New York has a proud tradition of protecting women’s health.

In 1970, New York was one of the first states in the nation to permit safe and legal abortion, greatly reducing maternal morbidity and mortality. While the law was ground breaking at the time, it does not contain a health exception and needs to be strengthened to ensure that a woman will be able to have an abortion if her health is endangered.

The Reproductive Health Act is legislation that will:

• guarantee a woman's ability to make personal, private decisions about her reproductive health care;
• ensure that a woman will be able to have an abortion if her health is endangered;
• protect individual decisions to choose or refuse contraception; and
• treat the regulation of abortion as an issue of public health and medical practice rather than a potential crime.
  

We support the Reproductive Health Act because:

• we need to strengthen state law to firmly establish the protection of a woman’s health;
• if the federal government continues to chip away at reproductive rights, New York’s law will be insufficient to protect a woman’s health;
  
• we must protect an individual’s right to make private reproductive health care decisions without government intrusion; and
• we have the chance to strengthen our laws and continue New York’s proud tradition of supporting women’s reproductive health and rights.

  Stand with us. Speak out.