Category: Updates

Right to Life Committee Endorses Dan Donovan and Rene Atayan

A True Halloween Horror
Atayan wants to make the laws banning a woman’s right to choose and Donovan wants to enforce them! By the time their done, women will have absolutely no control over their reproductive rights and, thus, also not over their economic, social, or political lives.

Atayan is running against staunch pro-choice advocate Amy Paulin.
Donovan is opposing 100% pro-choice ally Eric Schneiderman.

We need both Paulin and Schneiderman in Albany fighting for us.

 

Pro-choice Voter Guide 2010

Please download and share the 2010 Pro-choice Voter Guide which contains endorsements for NYS Governor, Comptroller, Attorney General, Senators, Supreme Court Judge, House of Representatives, Surrogate Court, County Court, and Family Court.

Standing with Eric Schneiderman for NYS Attorney General

“We are thrilled to endorse Eric Schneiderman for Attorney General. From the frontlines at clinics to the courtrooms to the State Senate, Eric has proven his commitment to a woman’s right to choose. It is vitally important who the Attorney General is when it comes to freedom of choice. Across the nation, anti-choice attorneys general have abused their position targeting women’s reproductive rights: in Kansas harassing the late Dr. Tiller; in Virginia, working to close 20 safe clinics; and in Michigan trying to outlaw abortion. Eric will protect clinic access, stop harassment, and aggressively push for greater protections. New York needs Eric Schneiderman as our next Attorney General.” Catherine Lederer-Plaskett, President, WCLA – Choice Matters

Join Choice Matters in Endorsing Eric Schneiderman for NYS Attorney General – Click Here

Are You With Us Saturday? We’re Endorsing Pro-Choice Leader Eric Schneiderman

Choice Matters and Rep. Nita Lowey to Endorse Pro-Choice Leader Eric Schneiderman for New York State Attorney General

Join Us.
Eric Schneiderman has been fighting to protect women’s fundamental reproductive freedoms for literally decades. It is vitally important who the Attorney General is when it comes to freedom of choice, because we must have someone who will protect clinic access, stop harassment, and aggressively push for greater protections — and Eric’s long record shows beyond any doubt he will be outstanding in this regard.

In addition, Eric’s opponent is an extremist who opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest.

Stand with Choice Matters and Rep. Lowey as we endorse a man, Eric Schneiderman, who has spent his entire life fighting for women’s rights.

When 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 16th
Where: Westchester County Center
(Intersection of Rt. 119 and Central Ave.)

Tell Dan Donovan: Stop Blaming Religion

Candidate for Attorney General Dan Donovan claims being Catholic made him anti-choice.

Fact: Many of the most ardent advocates for reproductive rights are Catholics.

Hasn’t he heard of Catholics for Choice? Or Frances Kissling and Jon O’Brien? (From the mouth of a pro-choice Catholic, click here.)

Fact: Donovan wrote on Choice Matters’ candidate questionnaire, “I believe life begins at conception.”

Fact: According to the New York Times, Donovan is “against abortion except in cases of rape or incest.”

Fact: Donovan claims he’ll represent New Yorkers and follow the law, but he kept his alliance with “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) a secret. CPCs are anti-choice facilities that pretend to provide comprehensive reproductive-health clinics but in reality deceive women and spread misinformation about abortion and birth control.

The CPC of New York on Staten Island liked him so much they gave him an award in 2003. Why? Because Donovan got the CPC grants while he was working in the office of the Staten Island borough president, including when he was the deputy borough president. Imagine what he might do for them as Attorney General.

Women cannot trust Donovan!
Fact: A good attorney general can advance our reproductive rights. A bad one can take them away.

Across the nation, anti-choice attorneys general have abused their position targeting women’s reproductive rights: in Kansas harassing the late Dr. Tiller; in Virginia, working to close 20 safe clinics; and in Michigan trying to outlaw abortion.

Take a moment and watch: Dan Donovan: It Could Happen Here

Choice Matters is proud to endorse Eric Schneiderman for Attorney General. From the frontlines at clinics to the courtrooms to the State Senate, Eric has proven his commitment to a woman’s right to choose.

*********************************************
“… I am a prochoice Catholic because my Catholic faith tells me I can be. The Catechism reads, “[Conscience] is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.” Even St. Thomas Aquinas said it would be better to be excommunicated than to neglect your individual conscience. So really, I am just following his lead. After years of research, discernment and prayer, my conscience has been well informed. Being a prochoice Catholic does not contradict my faith; rather, in following my well-informed conscience, I am adhering to the central tenet of Catholic teaching — the primacy of conscience.”

Excerpt from I am a Prochoice Catholic by Kate Childs Graham, writes for ReligionDispatches.org and YoungAdultCatholics-Blog.com. She also serves on the Women’s Ordination Conference board of directors and the Call to Action Next Generation Leadership Team.

Crisis Pregnancy Center Legislation

A yearlong investigation by Naral Pro-Choice New York found that crisis pregnancy centers feed women information that has been medically refuted (including an old standby, rejected by the National Cancer Institute, that abortions cause higher rates of breast cancer).

Christine C. Quinn, New York City Council speaker, and Councilwoman Jessica S. Lappin, Democrat of Manhattan, are proposing legislation that would require the anti-abortion point of view of crisis pregnancy centers to be clear to all women who visit them — either intentionally, or by accident while seeking a Planned Parenthood clinic across the street, or because the word “abortion” loomed much larger to them on that subway sign than the word “alternative.”

Read more about it in the New York Times.

Myth Busters #2 Tell Joe DioGuardi Women DON’T Fake Rape and Incest

FACT: When in Congress, DioGuardi cast his vote against abortion rights every time he had a chance including voting against abortions for women pregnant from rape or incest.

He explained, to a group of pro-choice lobbyists while in office, the number of real rapes and cases of incest were minimal.

DioGuardi opined, women cry rape and incest long after the fact.*
(hmmmm) ”he really doesn’t understand sexual trauma”, (wonder what he says about victims reporting sexual assault by religious leaders that occurred years ago.)

Joe DioGuardi was a two-term anti-choice incumbent when he lost to women’s reproductive rights advocate Congresswoman Nita Lowey in 1988. When he challenged Lowey again in 1992, DioGuardi took the Right to Life line.

Today DioGuardi is again endorsed by the Right to Life Committee. He has become more conservative over time, not less.

Now he is running against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand”and there is no stronger advocate in the Senate for women than Kirsten.

Tell DioGuardi New York women have no use for recycled Right to Life extremists!

*WCLA – Choice Matters has wonderful archives, and we have substantial files on Joseph (Joe) DioGuardi, past and present.

Growing Number Of Candidates Oppose Abortion In Cases Of Rape, Incest

A startling number of candidates up for election this year are anti-choice even to the extent that they oppose abortion in cases of rape, incest, or even to save the life of the woman. RNC for Life has endorsed 63 House candidates who are against abortion in all cases.

New York State has a horrific number running for all levels of government.

The following are NY Right to Life (RTL) endorsed anti-choice candidates:
*Senatorial and House challengers DioGuardi, Townsend, Mele and Russell and *State Senate and Assembly candidates Vernucchio, McLaughlin, Ball, Block, Ramondelli, Katz and Borkowski all want to overturn Roe v Wade; * RTL gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino made clear in his now infamous CNN interview that women should have no reproductive rights.

(Check out the voting guide for more, and pay special attention to the judicial candidates like Murphy who is up for reelection to the Supreme Court. Last time he took the Right to Life line and now is trying to hide that truth. He knows New York is pro-choice and his truth will hurt him!)

A few quotes from around the country:

Carl Paladino, running for Governor of New York

In a Sept. 15 interview with CNN’s Rick Sanchez, Carl Paladino said unequivocally that women should not be able to have an abortion even in cases of rape and incest. “Should a woman have a right to have an abortion if she’s — if she’s been raped?” Sanchez asked. “No,” replied Paladino. When he asked about cases of incest, Paladino said, “The baby can be adopted.”

Nevada Senate Candidate Sharron Angle

“two wrongs don’t make a right,” and said a young girl who had been raped by her father should think about making “a lemon situation into lemonade” by having her baby and either raising it or giving it up for adoption.

Delaware Senate Nominee Christine O’Donnell

On her campaign website, Christine O’Donnell states that she “[s]trongly believes in protecting the sanctity of life at ALL stages.” She has repeatedly said she opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest. She also condemned the use of condoms, calling them “anti-human.” “And what…if the population is increasing, so what?” O’Donnell said in a 2006 interview on Fox News. “People aren’t bad. When did humans become a bad thing? Why is it that we have to, you know, stop people from getting pregnant?”

According to the news media, voters are frustrated and apathetic. We must keep our focus. We cannot allow anti-choice extremists to win elections. Think about what is at stake and VOTE.

Source: Huffington Post and RNC for Life

Myth Busters #1 Nan Hayworth is NOT Pro-Choice!

Fact #1: Nan Hayworth is NOT Pro-Choice!!
She is running for Congress against Pro-Choice John Hall, in the 19th District which encompasses northern Westchester County, and parts of Orange, Dutchess and Rockland counties.

Nan Hayworth is a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.
In the Republican Primary she wanted voters to believe she was as anti-choice and reactionary as her opponent, and as soon as she won that, she started claiming she was pro-choice.

How do we know this?
Because her campaign told us that they did not want to hand in our questionnaire until after the Primary. Then, when they saw the questionnaire, she refused to complete it out of fear that we’d reveal the truth. Nan Hayworth is anti-choice.

What they did not bargain for is that back in December 2009, soon after Hayworth announced she was going to run, we emailed her. We had an on-going communication in which her campaign as authorized by her clearly stated:

Hayworth wants to:
1. Severely limit a woman’s right to choose;
2. Restrict access to women’s reproductive rights; and
3. She would have voted in support of the Stupak Amendment which is the greatest attack on women’s reproductive rights since the passage of Roe v Wade.

The reason given for her support of the Stupak Amendment was because she “would have voted with the GOP [Republican } Conference.”

In other words, Hayworth is in lockstep with her Party. All for independent thought!!

Apparently, a vote for Nan Hayworth is a vote for whatever her party tells her to do.

Lest You Forget
Why it is Important to Use Your Right to Vote to Vote Choice
(We are posting a different story each email. Take the time to read someone else’s pain.)

“A doctor brought her in. He called me and said, “Will you admit her on your service? She’s got a strangulated hernia.” I said, “Well, why don’t you send her to general surgery?” He said, “I think it’s in your field.” She came in and she had a loop of bowel hanging out of her vagina wrapped in newspaper and that was the “strangulated hernia”. And what he [the abortionist] did was perforate the uterus. He pulled out the bowel with his aborting instruments and he thought it was fetal bowel. She had literally over thirty inches of bowel hanging out of her vagina. And the poor woman should have died from several causes:  bowel obstruction, septicemia, and everything else. I operated and did a bowel resection, pulled this damn dirty bowel out of the uterus and vagina, and she lived. But many others died.

(Taylor Buckley, former chief resident in a big city general hospital in the early 1940’s, in Doctors of Conscience, by Carol Joffe, Beacon Press, 1995)

Profiling Amy Paulin Assemblywoman, NYS 88th Assembly District

All About Assemblywoman Amy Paulin

Amy is one of the Assembly’s most effective and productive members. She ranks in the top 3% of all Assembly members for sponsoring bills that pass both houses of the Legislature. Over her first four terms, 84 of the bills she sponsored became law, which is unprecedented for a legislator of her seniority.

Assemblywoman Paulin is a staunch advocate for women, with a lengthy list of accomplishments, including:

●Authoring landmark legislation which lengthens orders of protection in both the civil and criminal courts to assist those victimized by domestic violence;
●Negotiating the groundbreaking law that makes human trafficking and labor trafficking felony offenses;
●Sponsoring the law that eliminates the statute of limitations for rape;
●Promoting spousal maintenance legislation as a companion bill with no fault divorce and with payment of counsel fees legislation;
●Voting to ensure families can afford to keep their health insurance by requiring insurance companies to obtain approval from the state superintendent of insurance before they propose to increase insurance premiums; and
●Introducing five new bills to the Assembly to crack down on sexual assault and protect its victims. These new bills will stiffen the penalties for sexual assault, especially when a child is the victim.

Assemblywoman Paulin has been named a Leader in the Fight against Domestic Violence by the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NYSCADV), Among the many awards she has received are: the Excellence in Leadership Award from NOW of New York City; the Margaret Sanger Award from the Family Planning Advocates of New York State; and the Health Center Award by the Community Health Association of New York State.

Before being elected Assemblywoman, Amy Paulin served in several highly visible jobs, including Executive Director, My Sister’s Place; Member, Scarsdale Village Board; Founder and Chairwoman, Westchester Women’s Agenda; President, Westchester League of Women Voters; Vice President, NY State League of Women’s Voters; Citizen Member, County Board of Legislators’ Special Committee on Families; Scarsdale Citizens for Senior Housing; Scarsdale Arts Council and many more committees, councils and foundations.

Paulin’s opponent is Rene Atayan, Chair of the Bronxville Republican Party. Atayan is vehemently anti-choice and believes in severely restricting women’s access to abortion.