"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. This is the message which Tracey Brooks, President & CEO of Family Planning Advocates of New York, brings to Future Choices TV in May 2009. Unless we press our state legislators to enact the Reproductive Health Act, New York women risk losing some basic reproductive rights which we need to protect women's health and safety. In "Women's Health Matters!" Ms. Brooks sets out the reasons this is true.

New York has a proud tradition of protecting women’s health, Ms. Brooks says. 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.

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News about reproductive health:
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As of air time, the Reproductive Health Act had yet to be introduced. Check back here for updates on its passage through the NYS legislature.

In the meantime it is well established that the Reproductive Health Act is needed because:

• New York laws fail to protect women’s health. There is no health exception in New York's abortion laws. We must protect women in the face of aggressive federal attacks on their health and rights. If the federal government continues to chip away at reproductive rights, New York’s law will be insufficient to protect a woman’s health.
• An individual's right to make private health care decisions must be protected. A woman facing an unplanned or problem pregnancy should have the opportunity to make the best decision for herself and her family, whether her decision is continuing the pregnancy, adoption, or abortion. In light of increasing federal attacks on the rights of individuals to make difficult and personal health care decisions, the Reproductive Health Act will ensure that in the end, women are able to make the decision that is right for themselves and their loved ones.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has published an excellent Q & A on the Reproductive Health Act which may be downloaded for your convenience. Among the Questions:

• What does the Reproductive Health Act do?

• Why do we need this law?

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See Local TV schedule for time and channel in each participating community in Westchester County.

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Ms. Brooks highlights the extensive array of preventive health care for women offered by family planning providers in New York State, including Planned Parenthood. Her presentation brings home to New York the Guttmacher report, "Next Steps for America's Family Planning Program," a focus of a previous Future Choices TV program about the national effort to provide reproductive health care to all U.S. women in need. National trends identified in the Guttmacher report are very closely reflected in New York.

As CEO of Family Planning Advocates of New York State ("FPA"), Ms. Brooks represents over 350 health centers across the state of New York which provide reproductive health care services. FPA is a non-profit statewide membership organization dedicated to protecting and expanding access to a full range of reproductive health services. FPA represents and is primarily funded by New York's Planned Parenthood affiliates, with additional support from member family planning clinics and dozens of sister organizations, as well as thousands of individual members across the state. |MORE

Determined to protect women’s health FPA will lead the fight to pass the Reproductive Health Act. FPA will work with the NY legislature to pass this bill that will protect the fundamental right of women to control their own personal and private reproductive health decisions including the right to choose or refuse contraception and abortion care. FPA will oppose any federal or state attempts to restrict a woman’s constitutional right to choose.

Corrosive Myths Regarding the Reproductive Health Act are summarily refuted on FPA's website.

Check out a brief video which sets the record straight on the Reproductive Health Act:

5 Women Talk About the Reproductive Health Act

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"Women's Health Matters!" - Part 1	"Women's Health Matters!" - Part 2	"Women's Health Matters!" - Part 3

 

Brief Bio of Tracey Brooks

Tracey Brooks became CEO of Family Planning Advocates of New York State in December 2008. |MORE

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