Our Legislative Agenda
Protecting and Expanding Choice
Planned Parenthood will fight to protect and expand a woman’s right to a full range of safe, legal and confidential health care services, including the right to choose or refuse birth control, the right to choose or refuse abortion, and the ability to access prenatal care. Planned Parenthood supports the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act, a New York State bill that will protect a woman’s private and personal decision about when and whether to become a parent. This act would enshrine a woman’s fundamental right to control her own reproductive health; ensure that a woman will be able to have an abortion if her health is endangered at any point in her pregnancy; treat the regulation of abortion as an issue of public health and medical practice; and guarantee everyone the right to use or refuse contraception.
Advocating for Funding for Reproductive Health Care and Family Planning
Medical research has improved methods for contraception, immunization and HIV diagnosis that ultimately save lives and money. These new methods are safer, more effective and easier to use – but they have also become more costly. Without an increase in family planning funding and Medicaid reimbursement rates, New York is in danger of creating a two-tiered health system: one for wealthy New Yorkers and one for low-income New Yorkers.
Planned Parenthood will work to increase funding for, and access to, these services so that all New Yorkers, regardless of their ability to pay, will benefit from these important public health advances.
Promoting Sex Education
Young people must have access to honest, complete and accurate information to make safe and responsible choices about their sexual health. Planned Parenthood supports the Healthy Teens Act to help schools and communities provide teens with real sex education and strengthen parent-teen communication. The statewide Get the Facts NY campaign is working to raise awareness and build support for comprehensive, age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education for New York’s youth.
Increasing Access to Emergency Contraception
Planned Parenthood supports legislation and policies that reduce barriers to accessing emergency contraception. Last year, the FDA approved Plan B emergency contraception for over the counter (OTC) use. But women under the age of 18 and those who cannot produce proof of age must still obtain a prescription from a health care provider. Furthermore, the OTC product may be cost-prohibitive for some women, and insurance and Medicaid coverage for this preventive health measure is complicated. Planned Parenthood supports measures that remove barriers to accessing emergency contraception. Planned
Parenthood also supports programs that increase awareness of this public health breakthrough which will help women prevent unintended pregnancy.
Supporting Immigrant Health Initiatives
New York’s rapidly growing immigrant population faces many cultural, linguistic, economic and legal barriers that complicate access to, and use of, all health care services. Low-income immigrant women face a particularly daunting set of obstacles when they seek reproductive health care. Planned Parenthood
is committed to work in coalition with other groups to support legislation and policies that will eliminate these barriers and expand language access and interpretation services in health care settings.
Click here for a PDF of our 2008 State Legislative Agenda.
Click here for a PDF of our 2008 City Legislative Agenda.
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