Yesterday the NYS Senate passed three more parts of the Women’s Equality Act:  preventing employment discrimination against people with families, stopping housing discrimination against victims of domestic violence, and ensuring women receive equal pay for equal work.

The prolife position is that we approve and support the passage of 9 of the 10 WEA points, such as these, which enhance the dignity and rights of women. We oppose the radical 10th point that would make abortion legal through all 9 months of pregnancy, permit non-doctors to perform abortions, decriminalize coerced abortions, and allow abortions for sex selection and the reduction of twins.
As the legislative session draws to a close (it ends June 19) supporters of Women’s Equality Act  are still split over whether to push for the full agenda — including the controversial abortion expansion measure  — as a single piece of legislation or to vote on the 10 components separately. A separate vote would ensure that measures that have  broad bipartisan support in both the Assembly and Senate, would be passed into law.

Yesterday, members of the Women’s Equality Coalition, which supports the abortion plank, held a 20-minute rally in the Capitol to pressure lawmakers to pass the 10-point bill. Today Planned Parenthood Advocates of NY held a “Twitter Rally,” tweeting Senate leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein to bring the full WEA to the floor for a vote.

But last week, the Senate had already broken up the bill and passed two parts of it: the anti-human-trafficking and pregnancy protections in the workplace measures. And yesterday, it passed three more parts.The Assembly had passed the full bill last January.

Last year, the Senate passed 9 of the 10 parts of the WEA — all but the radical abortion expansion plank. However, because the Assembly passed the full bill and refused to compromise, no part of the WEA became law.

Will the final two days of the session result in another impasse this year?

Also possibly en route to a vote in the Senate is the so-called “Boss Bill” introduced in March by Rockland’s Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee and Manhattan Sen. Liz Krueger. This is a “contraceptive mandate,” similar to the one currently being decided in the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case. It would force employers — regardless of their religious beliefs — to provide contraception to their employees on the grounds of “discrimination.” Read about it here.

On Wednesday, June 18, the Westchester-Putnam Right to Life ad concerning the Women’s Equality Act will be shown on Hudson Valley Cablevision Channel 12 News at the following times (+/_  a few minutes):

(UPDATED 6/16/14)  Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R, C, I, Brooklyn, Staten Island) urged her colleagues on Friday to let each point in the Women’s Equality Act stand on its own merits and go up for a separate vote. Malliotakis said of the controversial abortion expansion plank:  

The sticking point is somewhat perplexing. New York ranks among the top states in the nation for number of abortions performed. In New York City, a striking 41 percent of pregnancies end in abortion, equating to roughly 87,000 abortions per year. Clearly, there is not a lack of access to abortion here in our state. Then why do the Assembly Democrats continue to hold up so many good measures for a 10th plank that they claim simply “codifies” federal law? They need to stop holding the Women’s Equality Act hostage and put forth a plan we can all be proud of.

Here’s Malliotakis’ complete statement, “Albany Must Not Fail Women Again.”

Others who support breaking the bill into separate votes include Assemblywomen Donna Lupardo (D-Endwell, Broome County), and Sandra Galef (D-Ossining, Westchester County). Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, issued a statement Friday calling for separate votes as well.

Tracey Brooks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Advocates, said women’s groups are still pushing for all components of the WEA, “and we’re not stopping until we get all of them.”