The attempt to expand abortion — the “10th-point” of the Women’s Equality Act (WEA) — was again blocked this year in the New York state legislature.

Thank you everyone who made phone calls, wrote letters, sent postcards, talked up the issue, and organized your friends to become involved. We held off the attempts of pro-abortion advocates to ram this bill through the state legislature once again.

And a special thanks to Sen. Co-Majority Leader Dean Skelos, N. Rockland Senator William Larkin, and all the representatives in the Senate and Assembly who courageously stood up for Life.

Here’s how it happened.

In a replay of last year’s vote on the WEA, the Assembly (in January) passed the full WEA which included the abortion expansion measure. (Rockland representatives Ellen Jaffe, Ken Zebrowski and Jim Skoufis all voted in favor.)

However, the Senate did not take a vote on the abortion plank but did pass the rest of the WEA measures last week.

In view of the Senate’s action, several members of the Assembly pressed the body to take a re-vote on what they passed in January — voting on their 10 issues separately this time, so at least the 9 passed by the Senate could become law.

But the Assembly held to their “all or nothing” approach — insisting that the abortion plank was an integral part of the package. As a result, the entire WEA went down to defeat.  Unfortunately, the anti-human-trafficking bill and the other  8 bills protecting women’s rights did not become law.

The “boss bill” was not brought up for vote in the Senate and so did not become law even though it was passed earlier by the Assembly, again with Jaffe, Zebrowski, and Skoufis voting for it.

Supporters of abortion expansion say they will make the defeat of the WEA a major issue in the fall election, targeting prolife senators.

The NYS Assembly adjourned yesterday, as scheduled, and held fast to their 10-point Women’s Equality Agenda. The good news: the abortion expansion legislation will not become law. The bad news: neither will any of nine points.

The Senate continued to work into the night, reconvened this morning — and is still working away passing bills at this hour (8 p.m.)

As soon as they adjourn and the legislative session is officially closed, we will have a story on what took place regarding legislation with prolife implications over the past few days.

Today the NYS Senate completed action on all the bills in its Women’s Equality Agenda.  The Senate version is comprised of 9 separate bills – -and it does not include the abortion expansion measure (the controversial “10th point”).

Passed today were bills to  stop sexual harassment at work, remove barriers to remedying discrimination, and allowing for electronic filing of orders of protection.

All bills have been sent to the Assembly.  So far, the Assembly — under pressure from abortion supporters and unwilling to separate the other issues from the abortion plank — has refused to take up the bills separately. Thursday is the last day of the legislative session, and if the Assembly does not act on the Senate bills at that time, none of them will become law.

Today, five members from the the Concerned Clergy for Choice called on the legislature to pass of the full 10-point WEA with the controversial abortion expansion measusre.

But an editorial in the today’s Daily News calls the abortion plank of the WEA for what it is:  From its genesis — above all, by forcing an abortion litmus test on legislators — the Women’s Equality Act was a nakedly political creation.

Today the NYS Assembly passed the so-called “Boss Bill,” a dangerous piece of legislation that would prevent a religious employer from refusing to provide health insurance that included coverage of birth control and abortifacient drugs because that would be a form of discrimination against women. It also says that employees must be protected from discrimination for the reproductive health decisions they make.

The bill was was sponsored by Rockland Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, and Rockland Assemblyman Jim Skoufis was one of the co-sponsors.

Advocates are pressing the Senate to vote on this bill before the legislative session closes on Thursday.

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.”