By Michele Sterlace | Executive Director of Feminists Choosing Life of New York

Without a federal right to abortion in the United States, the spread of whole-life feminism is more important than ever.  The very reasons that drive women to abortion continue to exist and fester. The deadly procedure for children fails to solve the problem, which includes issues involving poverty and domestic violence, to name just a few.

The whole-life feminist believes in equal opportunity.  Whole-life feminism promotes life and justice for every member of the human family throughout each stage of human development, beginning at conception through the natural end of life. 

Science tells us that human life begins at fertilization.  But we don’t need science to understand that human life neither begins nor ends at birth.  As promoters of non-violence, whole life feminists are concerned about preventing death as well as enhancing life, not only for children in utero, but for each vulnerable child and young adult, the aged and infirm. 

The goal: Social and political systems that provide each one of us the simple opportunity to live and to flourish, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, age or socio-economic status.  Where convenience, cost and unfettered ‘individual autonomy’ are elevated above compassion, interdependence, and our duty to others, the privileged and powerful benefit at the expense of the weak. The most marginalized among us needlessly suffer and die. 

Progressive societies seek to advance, not oppress people.  They work to align civil systems with principles of inclusivity and respect, not division and discrimination or contempt and scorn. 

Poverty, depression, anxiety, interpersonal violence, and suicide continue at high levels where death instead of life is offered up as a ‘choice,’ and on a shining silver platter, like in NY.  In the wake of the Dobb’s leak and ultimate decision overturning Roe vs. Wade, NY passed a slew of abortion expansion and protection measures, despite having already enacted the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) in 2019, a ‘liberal’ abortion law that essentially allows for on-demand abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy.  This law also repealed the few common sense safety standards NY had in place for decades surrounding abortion, and nullified NY’s long-standing fetal homicide law, which served to deter violent attacks against pregnant women and protect viable children in utero. 

In the aftermath of Dobbs, NY, along with other states, has had many opportunities to help address the difficulties, pain and suffering of women experiencing unplanned pregnancies– mothers facing childbirth without adequate finances, affordable-accessible childcare, solid healthcare and emotional supports, and sufficient protection from violence. 

Instead of seeking to alter harmful social constructs or weed out abortion’s root causes, to empower REAL choices and options for pregnant women as parents or birth mothers, NY continued to fan the flame of abortion ‘choice.’ With reckless disregard NY further eased the path for ending the lives of living human beings, including for women who live in anti-abortion states. 

Why? Profit, or financial gain for discrete interests, appears to be a primary factor. Abortions are more cost effective than child birth and/or parenting. The procedure monetizes killing, and includes a massive marketing campaign aimed at calming fears and normalizing the destruction of unborn children. The rhetoric adjoined to abortion, whether surgical or chemical, claims abortion is healthcare, abortion empowers women (with negligible or no negative impacts), abortion is necessary for women to professionally achieve and compete; that unborn children are irrelevant if ‘unwanted.’ The drum is loud and steady, generations are dying.  

Here are a few of the bills pending during NY’s 2023 legislative session that failed to pass, while  nearly two handfuls of pro-abortion bills became law, since June, 2022, with more than $100 million dollars also budgeted to fund their initiatives. Some analysis is also provided for context and perspective.

It should be the work of everyone, whether democrat, republican or independent, to prioritize and support social, economic and political systems that affirm life and the chance for everyone to flourish.

The Working Families Tax Credit

This proposed law would have created the New York Working Families Tax credit, which, among other things, provides working families a maximum tax credit of $1,500 per child, and regardless of income, a minimum credit of $500 per child.

The Working Families Tax Credit streamlines the NY Earned Income Tax Credit and Empire State Child Tax Credit “to provide working families with increased support while lessening the additional cost to the state.” It fills in gaps within the other tax credit schemes, including by applying to children from birth to 3 years old, and by eliminating “the cap on the number of children eligible to receive a credit.” Further, payments would be made to families quarterly rather than in one lump annual sum.

The bill was introduced in response to the federal government’s unwillingness to recently renew the expanded federal child tax credit provided in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the ARPA child tax credit “ lifted 2.1 million children out of poverty. It helped drive child poverty to 5.2%, a drop of 46%, according to the bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure.

Over 2 million New Yorkers, including nearly 715,000 children in NY live in poverty. According to the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy,

• NY children are “more likely to live in poverty” than children in the vast majority of other states, with nearly one in five NY children experiencing poverty.
• NY’s rate of poverty also disproportionately impacts children of color. Minority children in NY experience a near 30% poverty rate.
• Families with young children experience higher poverty rates than other families and “the birth of a child is the leading trigger of ‘poverty spells’ experienced by families.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics reports the following regarding the impacts of poverty on children,

The link between poverty and children’s health is well recognized.[P]overty in childhood continues to have a negative effect on health into adulthood. Poverty has direct negative effects on early brain development through the mechanism of toxic stress. Children growing up in low-income families and low-income neighborhoods face a daunting array of psychosocial and environmental inequities [including food insecurity and inadequate housing or homelessness].

Higher infant mortality rates among the impoverished [exist]. Children in the poorest 20% of urban populations in the United States are twice as likely to die before their first birthday compared with children in the richest 20% of the population.Children raised in poverty have been shown to have higher levels of depression and antisocial behavioral problems than those raised in families with adequate incomes. Depression in poor children younger than 18 years has been linked to substance abuse, poor academic performance, teen childbearing, and unemployment.

The justification for the proposed Working Families Tax Credit estimates that the tax will result in a “13.4% reduction” in child poverty in NY, with a “19.6% reduction” for children living in “deep poverty.”

Poverty is a root cause of the most visceral harms experienced by members of our human family. Effective measures that reduce poverty should be government’s top priority.

The Affordable Child Care Study

The bill purposed to help ensure access to affordable, quality child care in NY for “low to moderate income families, especially for single parents.” It directed that “particular attention” focus on the relationship between child care subsidies and the “ability of working families to achieve self-sufficiency.”

This proposed statute directed the Office of Children and Family Service to conduct a study of child care availability, child care assistance and child care funding in NY. The bill sought to aid the Child Care Availability Task Force’s efforts to address the deficiencies of NY’s child care system; to  “not only look at the current number of providers, but also the cost, quality, labor force, waiting lists and transportation barriers across the state” regarding child care.

Parents throughout the U.S. including in NY lack access to affordable, quality childcare. Research demonstrates that the nation’s child care system is in crisis, and that NY’s is “on the verge of collapse.” 

Various programs in NY provide free or low-cost child care to poor families, including the EarlyLearn Program and the NY Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). Despite NY’s efforts to improve access to child care, including increasing the income eligibility standards for child care subsidies, affordable child care for low-income parents and children is largely out of reach. For example, in NYC, “State funding will only cover 15% or 10,800 out of 72,000 of … eligible families.” According to the bill’s justification “only 22% of income-eligible families are receiving subsidies,” state-wide.

For years, NY has ineffectively and inefficiently addressed our state’s child care crisis through “piecemeal approaches and temporary solutions,” resulting in a child care system currently “on life support.”

All families deserve access to affordable, quality child care.

Hospital Stays – Poor Maternity Patients and Newborns

This proposed law required Medicaid to cover the hospital stays of Medicaid maternity patients and newborns for “at least 48 hours after natural delivery and 96 hours following cesarean section.” If enacted it would have codified equal treatment for poor women and children regarding hospital stays and child birth.  It sought to statutorily establish the same mandatory minimum periods of coverage under Medicaid that private insurers are bound to provide, and have provided for almost three decades in NY. 

Short hospital stays can be detrimental to the health of the mother and newborn, especially since conditions which affect newborns, including jaundice,”ductal-dependant cardiac lesions and gastrointestinal obstruction” are not apparent within the first 24 hours of life. In addition, studies show benefits to both mother and child as a result of longer hospital stays after birth, including, “more stable blood sugar” for infants and less “postpartum depression” for mothers.

Disadvantaged mothers and newborns are as worthy of appropriate health care as those more privileged. Justice demands solid healthcare for all people.

Doula Directory

This pending law would have required NY’s Department of Health (DOH) to establish and maintain a Doula Directory on the DOH website, for Medicaid reimbursement and Doula promotion.

Doulas are health care workers that provide emotional, physical and informational support to women before, during and after the birth of children.

It is well documented that the U.S. has the highest rate of maternal mortality “among high income countries,” and that women of color are disproportionately impacted.  Maternal morbidity and mortality is a public health crisis, and has been for “far too long.”  Poor infant and maternal health outcomes “pose a threat to the health, welfare, and quality of life” of women, children and families.  NY continues to “lack adequate and equitable” health care for pregnant women.  Women of color experience significantly higher rates of pregnancy complications and “mistreatment during the course of their pregnancy.”

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine doula care during pregnancy is “one of the most effective tools to improve labor and delivery outcomes,” including for minority women and children.

Studies on the effectiveness of doula care conclusively demonstrate that women who are supported by a doula during labor and childbirth are less likely to require a cesarean birth or use pain medication, and more likely to give birth spontaneously, have a shorter labor, and feel satisfied with their birthing experience.

Pregnancy involves two lives, mother and child. Helping both achieve health and wholeness is the hallmark of vibrant civilized societies.   

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act

This bill provided that an unborn child, at any age, may be a victim of an assault or homicide. The bill carefully exempted unborn children who die because of a legal abortion, normal medical treatment or because of actions taken by his/her mother. 

As a consequence of NY’s RHA, the state fell behind the majority of states that provide protection and justice for victims of violence, including unborn children. Because of the RHA it is no longer a separate crime in NY for third party criminal assailants to kill unborn children, regardless of their gestational age. Under current NY Penal Law, a person is defined as a “human being who has been born and is alive.” NY also fails to provide any specific enhanced statutory penalty for abusers who harm or kill pregnant women. 

Homicide is a leading cause of death of pregnant women and their unborn children in the U.S. 

Homicide deaths for pregnant women are more prevalent than deaths from obstetric causes. In other words, more pregnant women die because of vicious attacks against them rather than for physiological reasons. It is now well documented that: “It’s not high blood pressure, hemorrhage or sepsis that is more likely to kill pregnant women — it’s their husbands and boyfriends.”

The U.S. has a higher rate of intimate partner violence than other affluent countries, and the problem is growing. Pregnancy-associated homicides are also increasing, and most pregnant homicide victims are killed by third party criminal assailants– abusive current or former intimate partners. 

Violence against women continues to be a “major public health” concern, including in the U.S. Violence against women, especially pregnant women, necessitates a comprehensive approach towards its alleviation and elimination, including prosecutorial tools for perpetrator accountability. 

The least any progressive society owes women and children is the opportunity to hold abusers accountable for violent acts perpetrated against them.