Read the January 2008 NYS Pro-Life Reporter below. For the print edition, go here.

Gov. Spitzer makes abortion a priority for 2008

On Wednesday, January 9, 2008, Governor Eliot Spitzer opened the 2008 State Legislative Session with his second “State of the State” Address.

In his “plan for health care,” the Governor stated:  “We must also make a commitment to women's health. Given the continued efforts at the federal level to dismantle protections for women's reproductive health and privacy, I ask you to pass the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act.” 

Family Planning Advocates of New York State (FPA) praised the Governor for his leadership, stating, “New York stands to lead the nation in safeguarding women’s health.”  JoAnn Smith, Director of FPA, continued, “New York continues to show strong support for women’s health under Governor Spitzer.  The state must pass the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act now to help counter federal policies that negatively impact women.”

In a speech at the annual meeting of FPA in October 2007, New York State Health Commissioner Richard Daines affirmed the Spitzer Administration’s strong support for “reproductive health services”:

“The first principle is that every woman in New York State has a fundamental right to privacy, choice and personal decision-making regarding her reproductive health.  The (Governor’s) legislation clarifies and reinforces existing statutes protecting the right of women to self determination in matters of family planning and reproduction. Importantly, the legislation properly places these rights in the Public Health Law and removes all reference regarding reproduction decisions from the Penal Law. This gives responsibility to the State Health Department -not criminal prosecutors -- for oversight of the doctors involved -- just as the Department oversees doctors performing any other medical procedure.

"From my point of view, this legislation takes the too-long-delayed step of moving reproductive health and rights fully into the health and medical world of the 2lst Century. 

"Our hope is that this bill will be passed by the Legislature and signed into law during the next year.”

Stop the Reproductive Health
and Privacy Protection Act!

At a time when the numbers of abortion continue to decrease, both in New York State and around the country (see story, page 3), our government should not be promoting and encouraging the abortion industry.  Yet that is what the RHAPP would do: it would move our state in a decidedly opposite direction by imbedding policies that support, encourage, facilitate, even compel abortion-on-demand.

Please take action today against this legislative proposal, numbered S.5829. For the sake of pregnant women and their unborn children, this legislation must be strongly opposed!  Please take a few minutes to communicate your strong opposition to this proposal.  Write to Senator Joseph Bruno, the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Kemp Hannon, the Senate Health Committee Chairman, and your own elected State Senator.  Some talking points are below, as well as in the insert in this newsletter.

• Governor Eliot Spitzer’s Extreme Abortion Proposal, the so-called “Reproductive Health & Privacy Protection Act” or RHAPP, would:
• Promote late-term abortions of fully-formed infants
• Authorize non-physicians to perform abortions
• Lift the current age restriction on over-the-counter sales of the “morning-after pill”
• Thwart any efforts to involve parents in the abortion decisions of their children
• In addition, it could compel all hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, to allow abortion in their facilitiies.

Write to:

Hon. Joseph Bruno
NYS Senate
909 Legislative Office Bldg.
Albany NY 12247
518-455-3191
bruno@senate.state.ny.us

Hon. Kemp Hannon
NYS Senate
501 State Capitol Bldg.
Albany NY 12247
518-455-2200
hannon@senate.state.ny.us

Hon. (name)
New York State Senate
Legislative Office Bldg.
Albany, NY 12247
518-455-2800 (Senate switchboard)
www.senate.state.ny.us

 You can also communicate with your elected officials through this site. Click the “Take Action” button to bring you to an Action Alert already prepared on this vital issue.

New Yorkers for Parental Rights to fight RHAPP

A new organization has been established to organize and fight against Governor Spitzer’s “Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection” Act.  “New Yorkers for Parental Rights” (NYFPR) formed from a group of concerned citizens and organizations who are alarmed at the state’s increasing disruption of

parents’ rights to make decisions about their children's health and welfare. The group exists to provide a voice of reason to our culture and our politicians, to try to slow the erosion of parental authority in the lives of children.  They see the RHAPP bill as endangering the lives of children and women.

One of the first events NYFPR is sponsoring is a “Rally Against RHAPP’ on Tuesday, January 22, 2008, in Rochester outside the First Unitarian Church on S. Winton Road.  Inside the church on that evening will be Silda Wall Spitzer, the Governor’s wife and First Lady of New York State, who is scheduled to be there to promote the RHAPP bill – on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  The peaceful rally begins at 4:15 p.m.  If you can’t travel to Washington D.C. for the March for Life, and you live in upstate New York, try to join in solidarity with those who oppose RHAPP in Rochester.

If you would like to join the rally, or to learn more about the efforts of NYFPR and how you can get involved, send a note to info@nyfpr.com or call Jessica Shanahan, president of the organization, at (585 )385-2456.

Abortion numbers decrease in New York State

The New York State Department of Health has released new data on induced abortions performed in the state.  According to vital statistics, 117,944 resident induced abortions were recorded in 2005, a decrease from 120,401 recorded abortions in 2004.  Approximately 56% of the abortions performed in 2005 occurred at less than 9 weeks gestation, while 2,431 abortions were performed at 20 weeks gestation or more.

Forty-five percent of the women obtaining abortions in 2005 had had no previous abortions, but the remaining abortions were performed on women who had had at least one previous abortion.  The data reveals that 3,690 women obtaining abortions in 2005 had had five or more previous abortions.

The 2005 data also shows that the majority of women procuring abortions in New York State are white and in the age range of 20 to 29 years old.  Taxpayers in the state funded 45,411 resident abortions through the Medicaid program in 2005. 

New York City women accounted for 82,922 of the 117,944 abortions performed in 2005, while women in the rest of the state obtained the remaining 35,022 abortions.  Counties with the highest numbers of abortions were: Kings, Queens, the Bronx, and New York, followed by Westchester, Suffolk, Erie, Nassau and Monroe. 

Full information is available from the New York State Health Department at this link: http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/vital_statistics/2005/index.htm.  Those without access to the Internet may call the Health Department’s Office of Statistics at 518-474-9709 and request records on the numbers of induced abortions in New York State for 2005.

Governor's stem cell board
rewards embryo researchers

On January 7, 2008, Governor Spitzer announced that the Empire State Stem Cell Board, created through budget appropriations in the 2007-2008 State Budget, was awarding $14.5 million in stem cell research grants.  According to the Governor’s office, $6.1 million of this amount will fund direct stem cell research, while the remaining monies will fund equipment, laboratories, supplies and training for scientists.

In his comments to the press in announcing the grants, the Governor and Lt. Governor touted the “unparalleled pace” with which the funds flowed.  No government entity has moved on the issue with such speed “from concept to allocation of funds,” said the Governor.  In response to a reporter’s question, New York State Health Commissioner Daines noted that “this round of funding is all related to embryonic stem cells in some way, though not necessarily human (embryonic stem cells.)”  Indeed, Dr. Harold Varmus, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and current member of the Empire State Stem Cell Board, reminded the press on January 7 that federal NIH funding for stem cell research had “eroded,” and that states like New York “need to pitch in” to fund the research currently unfunded at the federal level, i.e. creating new embryonic stem cell lines.

On November 30, 2007, the Ethics Committee of the Empire State Stem Cell Board had unanimously recommended that the Board place a moratorium on funding the creation of new embryonic stem cell lines for a six-month period, while the Committee discussed and debated the ethics.  That recommendation was rejected by the Funding Committee of the Board, which ultimately recommended the stem cell research grant recipients announced on January 7, 2008.

In his “State of the State” Message on January 9, Governor Spitzer prominently lauded the stem cell research grants:

“Last year, working together with both houses of the Legislature and guided by the leadership of Lieutenant Governor Paterson, we created a $600 million Stem Cell Research Fund. He and I share the belief that, yes, stem cell research is an economic development opportunity, but it is also a moral imperative. I am pleased to report that, this week, the first round of grants went out, making New York's stem cell fund the fastest in the country to go from green light to grantmaking. In this chamber, we put our differences aside in favor of the common good, and as a result, New York can blaze a national path toward health, and hope.” 

On November 20, 2007 a major stem cell breakthrough was announced by researchers in both Japan and Wisconsin.  Scientists were successful in “reprogramming” ordinary human skin cells into behaving like embryonic cells, with much flexibility and versatility.  This “direct reprogramming” technique is cost effective and would require no cloning or genuine embryonic cells to create genetically-matched cells for patients’ use.  The Scottish scientist who cloned “Dolly” the sheep was so impressed with the results of these studies that he announced he would be abandoning the cloning approach to pursue direct reprogramming.  While much work remains to be done to move the technique to the treatment phase, it is a remarkable, morally un-troubling development in the field of regenerative medicine.

Yet, once again, the Governor’s priorities seem to be moving in an opposite direction, as he earmarks taxpayer funding for embryo-destructive research.  The Empire State Stem Cell Board plans to make additional research awards later this year.