New York state lawmakers, with encouragement from Planned Parenthood, are pushing to create a state abortion fund that would pay for low-income residents to have abortions.
Introduced in both the state senate and the assembly, Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assemblymember Karina Reyes are seeking to form the New York State Abortion Access fund. New Yorkers would be permitted to donate to the fund using their personal income taxes. It would be used to pay for low-income women’s abortions, essentially encouraging them to choose abortion over life.
“Many low-income New Yorkers — young people, people of color and undocumented immigrants — face very difficult financial barriers to accessing abortion care,” Biaggi said in a press conference. “Obstacles like travel expenses, child care, the cost of the procedure itself, should never be things that stand in the way of exercising someone’s constitutional and constitutionally protected right to choose. This bill will give a majority of New Yorkers who support the right to an abortion a chance to put their values into action.”
Biaggi did not express concerns about ensuring that women receive the support they need in order to keep their children — only that they could obtain abortions.
Unsurprisingly, the move is being applauded by Planned Parenthood, which is likely to receive the lion’s share of money from such a fund.
“It… destigmatizes abortion by being seen as it truly is: Health care,” said Robin Chappelle Golston, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts. “We know the greater the distance, comes greater out-of-pocket costs and delayed care. A voluntary contribution to support abortion access funds would provide New Yorkers an impactful way to support reproductive health care for all.”
Despite what Planned Parenthood says, abortion is not health care, and it is never medically necessary. Real health care does not intentionally or purposefully end human lives, and it does not typically leave women with psychological trauma afterwards.
This bill also encourages the troubling mentality that it is better to be dead than poor, disabled, or born into anything but the absolute best circumstances.
“Like” Live Action News on Facebook for more pro-life news and commentary!
