Letter from NYC Councilwomen Quinn, Ferreras, Arroyo and Lappin Announcing Passage of Womans Health Bill 371-A

Please see attached an e-mail letter just received by the NYC City Councilwomen leading the charge in having Bill 371-A, on women’s health, issues passed. Of the three Councilwomen mentioned Maria del Carmen Arroyo is the Councilwoman leading the fight from the Bronx. Please do see more about the bill below.

Gregory
*******

March 10, 2011

Dear New Yorker,

As you may have heard, this past month we won a major victory in our fight to protect women's access to healthcare with the NYC Council's passage of legislation regulating pregnancy service centers in New York City.

Nobody has the right to prevent a woman from taking care of her health.

Pregnancy services centers aren't licensed by the State of New York or the federal government to provide medical or pharmaceutical services to women who are or may be pregnant, nor do they include physicians' individual or group medical practices.

To ensure that these centers are being honest and upfront about the types of services they provide, Int. 371-A will require such centers to:

Inform their clients whether or not they have a licensed medical provider on staff;
Disclose the kind of pregnancy-related services provided by the center; and
Provide confidentiality protections for clients' personal and health information.

We want to extend a very special thank you to everyone, especially all of the advocates, who worked and fought so hard to get this important piece of legislation passed.

With this bill, which we expect Mayor Bloomberg to sign into law shortly, women can feel confident in their personal and legal health care decisions - and know that no one will be allowed to stand in their way.

Below are a couple of articles on the passage of Int. 371-A that we thought you might be interested in:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/nyregion/03pregnancy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
http://news.change.org/stories/victory-nyc-passes-bill-regulating-deceptive-crisis-pregnancy-centers

You can also find detailed information about the bill on the Council's website at www.council.nyc.gov.

Thanks again to everyone who helped us win this important fight. Your support for women's reproductive rights truly made a difference.

Sincerely,
Christine C. Quinn
Speaker
NYC Council

Julissa Ferreras
Chair, Women's Issues Committee
NYC Council

Maria del Carmen Arroyo
Chair, Health Committee
NYC Council

Jessica S. Lappin
Council Member & Lead Sponsor of Int. 371-A
NYC Council