Author: Choicematters

Astorino Supports Terrorizing Women – Vetoes Clinic Access Bill

Last Friday, just minutes after the conclusion of a press conference calling on the County Executive to support safe access of reproductive health care centers, Astorino vetoed  the bill. (Watch the Press Conference.)

He cited a litany of trumped up arguments that he rehearsed on Channel 12 the weekend before. These manufactured arguments have all been proven groundless by some of the greatest legal minds in New York and by New York law itself. Astorino’s veto was dripping with untruths intended to disguise his real motivating force.

Fact: Astorino vetoed the bill because his right-to-life anti-choice extremist constituents asked him to do so. (See the promise made in an email from zealot John Mark-click here.)

Astorino knew he could get away with this because he made sure that there was no super majority to override  his veto. His little puppets, led by opportunists Jim Maisano and Bernice Spreckman who have become traitors to Choice, don’t care what happens to women who use clinics and centers for access to health care.

Unlike these Astorino puppets, many women of  Westchester face financial constraints that do not allow them to visit a private doctor so as to avoid harassing and terrorizing demonstrators.

Mr. Astorino and his allies in the Republican delegation are waging a silent war against Westchester’s women and our families.

Despite what Astorino and his minions would have you think, the Clinic Access Bill is not about providers. It is about women: your mother, your sister, your daughter, your aunt.

It is about women accessing safe, good, affordable health care.

It is about health care for senior women who need breast exams, pap smears, and more.

It is about younger women who need cancer screenings and comprehensive reproductive health care.

This is not about County tax dollars. It is about women and health care.

This veto stands with other attacks by this administration and its allies in the Republican delegation.

Astorino’s handpicked candidate Sheila Marcotte–along with Mike Smith, Gordon Burrows, and David Gelfarb–led the way in voting NO to funding senior transportation-just $15,000 in the County budget.

This money was allocated to transportation ONLY for seniors, most of whom are women–some widowed or divorced  and statistically one of the least financially stable groups in our society. And Astorino’s puppets wants to deny them transportation!

Astorino has made it increasingly expensive for the working poor to qualify for childcare. The result is that far fewer are qualifying, and then must choose between quitting their jobs or placing their kids in unlicensed and potentially unsafe facilities-something you can bet Astorino would never do to his own kids.

Astorino has cut four after school programs that were receiving partial funding from the federal government. Why? Because he can.  Who in a community hanging on just simply to survive has the time or the ability to fight back?

The list of his actions is much longer, and simple to understand.

Rob Astorino has brought the War on Women and our Families to Westchester–and his allies like Sheila Marcotte, are helping him target the most vulnerable.

Astorino Sells Out Women for His Anti-Choice Constituents-Email

From: John Mark <themarks@optonline.net>
To: CE@Westchestergov.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 7:25 AM
Subject: Ba Ba Ba Ba Barbara Ann & Rob Astorino
Dear Gentle Prolifers ,
Went to the Beach Boys 50th Anniversary Tour Concert at County Center last night & it was Fun , Fun , Fun !
I met Rob Astorino there enjoying himself ( the only one in a suit ) , he is our friend of life and a friend of Jesus . We go back to before his 1st run for county executive when I met him ( with one of his small children over his shoulder ) at a Republican BBQ where he was one of the few who answered my questions “ are you running for office and are you prolife “ positively and enthusiastically . Last night I walked right past him trying to find my friend in the crowd and Rob tapped me on the shoulder , shook my hand , said hi and “ isn’t this a great show “ then told me he will veto the clinic access bull . In 2 days !
Hoorah !
HOWEVER . . . he wants , needs , would like , would appreciate MORE CALLS AND LETTERS asking him to do so . The other side is frantic .
In other words he needs us to BACK HIM UP .
If you haven’t BOTH called AND emailed him to say “ Please veto the clinic access bill “ do so NOW at 914-995-2127 CE@Westchestergov.com .
Ask , no INSIST that your friends & family call and email him . . . now .
John Mark

Clinic Access Bill Passes, But For How Long?

The Good News:
The Clinic Access Bill Passed

The Bad News:
Two Legislators Betrayed Us!

Let me start by saying thank you to those who came out. Because you were there, you gave force and conviction to our words.
The great news is that we won. The vote by our legislators on the Reproductive Health Care Access Bill, which came one week after the Public Hearing, was 10-7 our way.

Ten legislators voted to pass our bill which guarantees safe access for women to enter and exit reproductive health clinics while protecting First Amendment Rights to free speech.  This was a great victory. It has taken us more than 14 years to get this far.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that  our success will be short lived because the County Executive who is an anti-choice extremist will veto this bill.

-And because last November two pro-choice elected officials were replaced by anti-choice right-to-life zealots, we lost two important override votes.

-And, most importantly, because we have two turncoats in our midst, we will not be able to override the anti-woman County Executive’s veto.

Most disturbing to me in this is that these two turncoat opportunists –Jim Maisano and Bernice Spreckman — who would have given us our super-majority override against the County Executive’s veto, voted against protecting the women of Westchester.

Instead, turncoats Maisano and Spreckman decided to launch their own personal war on women in order to further their own political and personal agendas.

Maisano stated to pro-choice advocates that he had to choose between the women of Westchester and the Conservative Party endorsement.

Maisano chose the Conservative Party.

(Conservative Party Chairman Fox, who also works for County Excutive Rob Astorino on tax payer dollars, sat right in front of Maisano to cement the deal.)

To Maisano, the Conservative party is more important than the health care of, according to the census, 51.6% of Westchester’s population.

More precisely, Maisano does not care about the health care of young women and those who cannot afford a private doctor.

Maisano only cares about his own political career, and has concocted a list of fabricated arguments to explain why he did not vote for the bill. All of his arguments have been refuted by great legal minds who do not have a political agenda.

Bernice Spreckman’s reason for betraying the trust of Westchester’s women is different.
Spreckman’s son apparently now works for County Excutive Rob Astorino. This is Spreckman’s own form of job security. She knows that Astorino is an anti-choice extremist, so she decided to look out for her son and turn her back on the women of Westchester.
Some think that it is wrong that I tell you that – somehow family facts are to be kept private. I do not agree. When the facts affect an elected official’s abiltiy to make sound decisions that impact the of 51.6% of the population then I believe the public deserves to know.

Fact: Jim Maisano and Bernice Spreckman sought our endorsement for more than a dozen years, and received it.

Fact: They used our endorsement to get elected.

Fact: After all those endorsements, this was the first time that we sought their vote and their voice – as their two votes are critical.

Fact: NOW when their vote counts, they voted NO!

Fact: For political expediency, they  turned their backs on all of us who voted for them, slamming the clinic door in our faces.

At this juncture we must tell Jim Maisano and Bernice Spreckman we will not tolerate their empty words and empty promises.

Our endorsement and our votes do matter and we will not be used again.

Protect Women! Pass the Reproductive Health Care Access Bill!

[emailpetition id=”2″]

As a Westchester voter, I hold as a core value a woman’s ability to make her own personal, private health care decisions, especially when her health is endangered.

All women should have access to health care without fear for their safety.

I support the Reproductive Health Care Access Bill presently before the Westchester County Board of Legislators scheduled for a Public Hearing on Monday, April 30, 2012.

I ask that you vote in support of its passage.

I will only vote for a candidate for County Legislator in November 2013 who votes in support of the passage of this Bill.

Please stand up for the women of Westchester by passing the Reproductive Health Care Access Bill!

It’s Now or Never for Westchester’s Women!

We Need You to Speak Out for Women’s Safety and Privacy!

The Clinic Access Bill is scheduled for a Public Hearing at 7 p.m., Monday, April 30, 2012
Westchester County Office Building
148 Martine Ave, 8th floor
White Plains, NY
Put This on Your Calendar & Show Up, Please!

They Need to Hear from YOU!

The Following Legislators will not promise to support it!!
(Either they voted against furthering the bill to bring it to the floor or failed to vote for it at.)

Call ALL of Them!

Demand that They Stand Up for Women!

We deserve safe access to reproductive health centers!

David Gelfarb            995-2834                                                                                 gelfarb@westchesterlegislators.com

Jim Maisano              995-2826    maisano@westchesterlegislators.com                                                                                                                                                                      Bernice Spreckman  995-2815    spreckman@westchesterlegislators.com                                                                                                                                                                       Sheila Marcotte         995-2817   marcotte@westchesterlegislators.com                                                                                                                                                                           John Testa                 995-2828   testa@westchesterlegislators.com                                                                                                                                                                              Gordon Burrows      995-2830                                                                                                                                                                                       burrows@westchesterlegislators.com

Michael Smith            995-2847                                                                                                                                                                                              smith@westchesterlegislators.com

They need to hear from you.  Last December no one turned out except for a room full of anti-choice extremists, and the bill was never brought up for a vote. We fought hard to bring it back. Now you need to fight.
___________________________________________________________________

More than a decade ago, Senator Andrea Stewart Counsins and Assemblyman Tom Abinanti, then County Legislators, fought to ensure that women had safe access to women’s reproductive health centers. Unfortunately, they were not successful.  It has taken us more ten years to get to this point. We had a shot at it again last December and came up short. Now, after months of discussion, review, and dissection, the Clinic Access Bill—that would ensure women safe access to reproductive health centers—was voted out of Committee and sent to the Westchester County Board of Legislators for a vote.

This bill protects First Amendment Rights and takes a big step toward protecting Westchester’s women.

Come out and show your support for this bill tonight!

We must excerise our right to speak up and be heard.
Please come and speak out.

For the record: 1. The Bill was carefully reviewed to make sure that it was 100% in compliance with First Amendment rights – for all parties involved; and, 2. There is no other law–not state or federal–that presently protects Westchester’s women’s safety as they enter and exit reproductive health centers.

Tell Them: We Elected Them to Protect Women!

You can’t make this up! In Arizona pregnancy begins when a woman…

It’s all about who controls state government– Arizona just passed three more extreme anti-choice laws.

1. Pregnancy/gestation is now counted as beginning on the last day of a woman’s period, with abortion only permitted up to 18 weeks, the shortest time span in the nation;
2. Doctors can withhold health information about a fetus from the woman if that information might lead her to have an abortion; and
3. Rules mandating how schools may teach about unwanted pregnancies.

As we look around the country, watch what is going on in Washington DC, and hear the GOP candidates attack a woman’s right to contraception, we realize our state governments are our last line of defence. States controlled by an ultra-conservative anti-women legislators are systematically turning back the clock to a time where the rythm method was the only form of birth control available to women; where women who have sexual relations are called “sluts”; and single parenthood is deemed child abuse. States after states are passing laws that take away a woman’s dignity and control over her own body, and, thus, her life.  Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Colorado…the list of states taking away our rights is sadly seemingly endless.  And, YES, it could happen here in New York.
Who is making the rules that govern our state? Right now it is the Republican-controlled NYS Senate, led by anti-choice extremist Republican Majority leader Dean Skelos. To protect our rights and to pass the Reproductive Health Act that guarantees that every woman can make her own personal, private health care decisions, especially when her health is endangered. Seven out of 10 New York voters – across religious and party lines – support the Reproductive Health Act. Too bad Skelos doesn’t care. If New Yorkers are to take control of their bodies and health, we must get rid of the Republican controlled majority in our state senate.

from the Huffington Post, 4/11/2012

“Arizona lawmakers gave final passage to three anti-abortion bills Tuesday afternoon, including one that declares pregnancies in the state begin two weeks before conception.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill to prohibit abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy; a bill to protect doctors from being sued if they withhold health information about a pregnancy that could cause a woman to seek an abortion; and a bill to mandate that how school curriculums address the topic of unwanted pregnancies.

The 18th week bill includes a new definition for when pregnancy begins. All of the bills passed the Senate and now head to Gov. Jan Brewer (R) for her signature or veto. Passage of the late-term abortion bill would give Arizona the earliest definition of late-term abortion in the country; most states use 20 weeks as a definition.

A sentence in the bill defines gestational age as “calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman,” which would move the beginning of a pregnancy up two weeks prior to conception.

Elizabeth Nash, states issues manager for Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organization in Washington, said the definition corresponds with how doctors typically determine gestational age. She said since the exact date of conception cannot be pinpointed, doctors use the day of the woman’s last menstrual period to gauge the duration of a pregnancy. The method does not provide an exact date.

“It will have some impact, from what we understand there are abortions provided at that point in Arizona,” Nash said. “It will reduce access.”

Nash said nationally, 1.5 percent of abortions in the U.S. occur after the 21st week and 3.8 percent occur between the 16th and 20th weeks. She said the bill would violate U.S. Supreme Court rulings on abortion by mandating a cutoff date that is before viability and not having enough provisions for late-term abortions needed to protect a woman’s health.

State Rep. Kimberly Yee (R-Phoenix), the bill’s sponsor, was not immediately available for comment. Her assistant said that Yee, a former aide to former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), was voting on the House floor.

State Rep. Matt Heinz (D-Tucson), a physician, said he did not want the state to set the gestational age since science could not provide a precise one. “I imagine it will be a legal dispute. How can a judge determine gestational age?” Heinz said. “If medical science can only determine gestational age to within 10-14 days, how can a superior court judge do it?”

The other two bills passed by the House include the state’s “wrongful birth, wrongful life” bill that prohibits lawsuits against doctors who do not provide information about a fetus’ health if that information could lead to an abortion. In addition, parents cannot sue on the child’s behalf after birth.

The third bill requires that schools teach students that adoption and birth are the most acceptable outcomes for an unwanted pregnancy.

All three bills are now headed to Brewer’s desk for her review. The governor has not announced a position on the bills, which is her practice, but her spokesman indicated that Brewer has a long commitment to pro-life issues.”

also read:
Not All “20-Week” Bans Are Created Equal: A Closer Look at How Abortion Bans Diverge from Medical Protocol and Put Women at Risk
Arizona Lawmakers Trying To Legislate Pregnancy Two Weeks Prior To Conception
How Nebraska’s 20-Week Abortion Ban Became One Family’s nightmare and Why We Need to Ban The Bans
Mississippi’s “Heartbeat” Ban Returns

Alert: Tell Gov Cuomo, Now is the Time to Stand Strong for Women’s Health!

Tell Governor Cuomo,
“The Reproductive Health Act is in Your Hands!”

Pro-Choice Activist, Your action is needed!
The national dialogue about women’s health has become an outright war against women. Despite this horrific onslaught—from Congress to state legislatures to the GOP presidential candidates—New Yorkers have felt protected by the belief that Governor Cuomo would stand with us and help pass the Reproductive Health Act.

The Reproductive Health Act is our best hope for strengthening New York’s protections for women’s health care and turning the anti-woman tide that is sweeping the country.

With the Governor’s support, we have a real chance to pass it this year! Without it we don’t.

But we must act quickly.

Make Your Voice Heard – Email the Governor a Message!

This week the national attack on women’s health has come to New York. The state’s Catholic Conference has descended on Albany in strong opposition to this crucial legislation. Anti-choice legislators have maneuvered to stall the bill in committee.

But they don’t speak for the vast majority of New Yorkers who want to secure and strengthen reproductive freedom. Three-quarters of all New Yorkers and 70% of all Catholics support the passage of  the Reproductive Health Act. It would explicitly recognize a woman’s right to reproductive-health care, including abortion and contraception. It would also fix a troubling gap in current law that fails to protect a woman’s access to care when her health is endangered later in pregnancy.

That’s why the governor needs to hear from you.

Let Governor Cuomo know that you’re another New Yorker for the Reproductive Health Act.

Wall Street Journal Just Learned What Choice Matters has Known for 40 Years

Guess who will determine the outcome of the 2012 elections! 
Who is that mystery demographic group?

Choice Matters knows, and has since 1972.

It’s not the independent, blue collar, or southern voter who is the swing voter, the one who will decide this election.

According to a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal/NBC News, that swing voter is the suburban woman voter.

In other words, the voter that Choice Matters has been speaking to and cultivating since 1972. More precisely, most of YOU.

Yes.  You are the swing voter.  You are the voter who is not party bound when it comes to Choice. You vote the issue, and the issue most definitely is women’s reproductive health and freedom.

You are the swing voter who demands to have the full range of reproductive health rights.  You are the voter who will demand that the pendulum not swing backwards!

Choice Matters realized way back in 1972 that suburban women are smart, pro-choice and vote. That’s why we turned to you. Your names (and passion) fill our database.  Maybe you remember the first time we called and asked you to complete our survey on Choice. Every single person in our database has been identified as pro-choice — and that’s a lot of people.

Together, you and Choice Matters have elected many pro-choice candidates. And we must continue to do so. Our rights and our lives depend on it.   We need your support more than ever.  Please consider making a contribution today. 

Question:  Why is it that Choice Matters has known that it is you who can and will decide, and the Wall Street Journal is just finding it out, and apparently the current batch of GOP candidates still doesn’t know it?

If men could get pregnant…

For over 20 years, we have had a wall in our offices with photos and drawings of pregnant men. We call it the “Pregnant Men Corner”.

As we celebrate our 40th anniversary, we are taking the the pregnant men corner online!

Please visit http://www.ifmencouldgetpregnant.com/. We are accepting submissions of photos or other media!

You can also like us on Facebook.

Nicholas D. Kristoff, you got it right! “Beyond Pelvic Politics”

Beyond Pelvic Politics

By Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2/11/2012

I MAY not be as theologically sophisticated as American bishops, but I had thought that Jesus talked more about helping the poor than about banning contraceptives.

The debates about pelvic politics over the last week sometimes had a patronizing tone, as if birth control amounted to a chivalrous handout to women of dubious morals. On the contrary, few areas have more impact on more people than birth control — and few are more central to efforts to chip away at poverty.

My well-heeled readers will be furrowing their brows at this point. Birth control is cheap, you’re thinking, and far less expensive than a baby (or an abortion). But for many Americans living on the edge, it’s a borderline luxury.

A 2009 study looked at sexually active American women of modest means, ages 18 to 34, whose economic circumstances had deteriorated. Three-quarters said that they could not afford a baby then. Yet 30 percent had put off a gynecological or family-planning visit to save money. More horrifying, of those using the pill, one-quarter said that they economized by not taking it every day. (My data is from the Guttmacher Institute, a nonpartisan research organization on issues of sexual health.)

One-third of women in another survey said they would switch birth control methods if not for the cost. Nearly half of those women were relying on condoms, and others on nothing more than withdrawal.

The cost of birth control is one reason poor women are more than three times as likely to end up pregnant unintentionally as middle-class women.

In short, birth control is not a frill that can be lightly dropped to avoid offending bishops. Coverage for contraception should be a pillar of our public health policy — and, it seems to me, of any faith-based effort to be our brother’s keeper, or our sister’s.

To understand the centrality of birth control, consider that every dollar that the United States government spends on family planning reduces Medicaid expenditures by $3.74, according to Guttmacher. Likewise, the National Business Group on Health estimated that it costs employers at least an extra 15 percent if they don’t cover contraception in their health plans.

And of course birth control isn’t just a women’s issue: men can use contraceptives too, and unwanted pregnancies affect not only mothers but also fathers.

This is the backdrop for the uproar over President Obama’s requirement that Catholic universities and hospitals include birth control in their health insurance plans. On Friday, the White House backed off a bit — forging a compromise so that unwilling religious employers would not pay for contraception, while women would still get the coverage — but many administration critics weren’t mollified.

Look, there’s a genuine conflict here. Many religious believers were sincerely offended that Catholic institutions would have to provide coverage for health interventions that the church hierarchy opposed. That counts in my book: it’s best to avoid forcing people to do things that breach their ethical standards.

Then again, it’s not clear how many people actually are offended. A national survey found that 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women use birth control at some point in their lives. Moreover, a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute reported that even among Catholics, 52 percent back the Obama policy: they believe that religiously affiliated universities and hospitals should be obliged to include birth control coverage in insurance plans.

So, does America’s national health policy really need to make a far-reaching exception for Catholic institutions when a majority of Catholics oppose that exception?

I wondered what other religiously affiliated organizations do in this situation. Christian Science traditionally opposed medical care. Does The Christian Science Monitor deny health insurance to employees?

“We offer a standard health insurance package,” John Yemma, the editor, told me.

That makes sense. After all, do we really want to make accommodations across the range of faith? What if organizations affiliated with Jehovah’s Witnesses insisted on health insurance that did not cover blood transfusions? What if ultraconservative Muslim or Jewish organizations objected to health care except at sex-segregated clinics?

The basic principle of American life is that we try to respect religious beliefs, and accommodate them where we can. But we ban polygamy, for example, even for the pious. Your freedom to believe does not always give you a freedom to act.

In this case, we should make a good-faith effort to avoid offending Catholic bishops who passionately oppose birth control. I’m glad that Obama sought a compromise. But let’s remember that there are also other interests at stake. If we have to choose between bishops’ sensibilities and women’s health, our national priority must be the female half of our population.