NOW - NEW YORK STATE OPPOSE MEMO
A-04910 (Barraga) - Prohibits Medicaid Funding for Abortion
March 2005
|
Search Site With  |
|
|
|
By prohibiting Medicaid funding for abortion and related medical expenses, this legislation discriminates against lower-income women and severely restricts the guaranteed legal right to a safe abortion.
Without public assistance funding for abortion, lower-income women will be forced to delay their abortions in order to save the necessary money for the service, transportation and childcare. Women will need to work more hours or multiple jobs to afford an abortion, possibly taking them away from young children they are raising. By limiting access to abortion services, pregnant women will experience riskier, late-term procedures.
The worst-case scenario is that a woman will abandon the possibility of having an abortion. If a woman does not have the economic means to afford an abortion, how can she be expected to afford 18 years of child support? Denying women economic access to abortion services and denying them legal access are equally deplorable violations of a woman’s basic right to control her own reproductive life.
The National Organization for Women - New York State, Inc. strongly urges the NYS Legislature to protect access to safe, legal abortions for women of all economic statuses by opposing this harsh and discriminatory legislation.
Marcia A. Pappas, President, NOW-NYS, Inc.
Lori Gardner, Executive VP
Barbara Kirkpatrick, Legislative Vice President
|
