Tuesday, June 22, 2010

12 Undecided

Our bill is still in the Assembly Ways & Means committee.

Out of the 35 members in the Assembly Ways & Means committee, 12 haven't made a decision yet.

These members are waiting to make their decision of support based on facts. Some of the more significant facts are listed below. Cut & Paste the email addresses into a new email and share a fact or two along with your request that they support Assembly Bill #4375.

While it can be difficult to stay away from the emotional reasons for wanting this bill to pass, we ask everyone to focus on using the below facts to persuade the remaining Ways & Means committee members.

Thank you!

For all of our Children....

Copy & Paste the below addresses into the 'Send To:' box:
AubryJ@assembly.state.ny.us,CahillK@assembly.state.ny.us,FarrelH@assembly.state.ny.us,JacobsR@assembly.state.ny.us,GanttD@assembly.state.ny.us,GlickD@assembly.state.ny.us,Hoopere@assembly.state.ny.us,HoytS@assembly.state.ny.us,Morellej@assembly.state.ny.us,NolanC@assembly.state.ny.us,ParmenW@assembly.state.ny.us,PretloJ@assembly.state.ny.us,Weinsth@assembly.state.ny.us,WrightK@assembly.state.ny.us

Copy a few facts into your request for support of bill A.4375:

  • This bill was first introduced into NYS government in 2003. Nearly 13,000 New York State families have since buried their stillborn child.

  • 1 in 100 births in New York State results in a stillbirth.

  • NYS Public Health Law §4160 recognizes a fetal death as both a birth and a death. It requires the burial or cremation of the stillborn fetus. To be consistent, then, NYS law should also acknowledge the birth of the fetus. The CBRS will accomplish this inconsistency.

  • Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 provides legal rights for an unborn fetus post 20 weeks gestation without infringing upon abortion laws. With this law in place, there should not be any concern that A.4375 will infringe on abortion laws.

  • Costs to the state registrar and local registrars will be minor and offset by the certificate fee.

  • The terms "live birth" and "stillbirth" exists because both events are a birth.

  • A.4375 has been overwhelmingly approved by the Assembly Health committee. The Health committee has had regular dealings with the major opposition groups whose concerns have been alleviated.

  • In the past 9 years, 27 states have passed similar bills, granting parents the option of obtaining a Certificate of Birth Resulting in Stillbirth, without repercussions to existing right-to-choose laws.

  • The words "This certificate is not proof of a live birth" will appears on each certificate.

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