S892 (Krueger) / A85 (Paulin)
The proposed Unintended Pregnancy Prevention Act would expand the availability of Emergency Contraception (EC) by allowing for new classes of prescribers (namely minors), mandating insurance coverage, and requiring educational efforts.
To take action on this item, please visit NYCF's Legislative Action Center.
New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms (NYCF) supports efforts to reduce unintended pregnancies in the State of New York, but NYCF believes this is best accomplished through proactive preventive measures, not by endangering teenage girls and violating parental rights. NYCF strongly opposes the proposed legislation for the following reasons:
- EC can cause abortions. While some "experts" report that this class of drugs does not cause an abortion as it attempts to prevent the conception, there is a risk that this class of drugs can prevent the conceived embryo from implanting in the uterine wall, thereby causing the earliest form of human life to be prevented from further development resulting in death.[i] To say that EC cannot cause an abortion accepts the premise that life only begins once it has implanted in the womb, but many New Yorkers agree with the scientific definition that life begins at the moment of conception.
- EC will be costly to promote and distribute. The sponsor’s memo lists no fiscal implications. This omission is inaccurate, at best. The bill includes a provision requiring insurance companies (including Medicaid) which offer coverage for contraception to provide coverage for EC. If access is more readily available to a new class of prescribers, it is only logical to assume that the cost to the insurance companies and the state will increase.
- Additionally, the bill requires that educational material be created; however, it provides no information on the costs required for creating and distributing this material.
- EC promotes a lack of oversight. This bill includes a provision for the distribution of prescriptions which are non-patient specific. This is a back-door attempt to get around the provision requiring a healthcare provider to present information about the potential risks of EC and its side effects (including headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and abdominal pain) which that prescription drug may have on the patient. This provision would allow prescribers to write a prescription for EC months in advance of any potential “emergency”, reducing the likelihood for patients to be fully informed at the time they are taking the drug.
- EC availability to minors violates parental rights. By permitting teenage (or younger girls) access to non-patient specific regimens without parental notification, the state is treading upon a parent’s right to direct the affairs of their minor children’s lives. The teenage years are turbulent and teens need their parent’s guidance. The state should be encouraging, not discouraging communication between young people and their parents.
For each of the aforementioned reasons, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms urges the New York State Legislature to defeat this legislation.
To take action on this item, please visit NYCF's Legislative Action Center.
[i] American Pregnancy Association. (2006). Emergency Contraception. Retrieved March 10, 2009, from http://www.americanpregnancy.org/preventingpregnancy/emergencycontraception.html.
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