{"id":8552,"date":"2013-06-04T13:48:38","date_gmt":"2013-06-04T17:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=8552"},"modified":"2013-06-04T13:48:38","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T17:48:38","slug":"five-months-later-gov-cuomo-introduces-womens-equality-act-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2013\/06\/04\/five-months-later-gov-cuomo-introduces-womens-equality-act-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Five months later, Gov. Cuomo introduces Women’s Equality Act legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CAP2X\"<\/a>Why, just this morning Karen DeWitt reported on what’s ahead for the New York state legislature<\/a> in the three weeks or so it has before it goes on recess for the summer. Among the possible items up for debate in the legislature was the Women’s Equality Act, which Cuomo first introduced way back in January in his State of the State address, and lo and behold that bill has been released this very afternoon (here’s the press release from the governor’s office<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

You can read the actual bill here<\/a>, should you be so inclined (thanks to the Albany Times-Union for the link.) The bill, which the governor’s press release describes as “designed to end discrimination and inequality based on gender and to restore New York as a leader in women\u2019s rights,” would toughen existing laws against human trafficking, domestic violence, various kinds of gender discrimination, sex harassment and pay inequality. But the thing that’s getting the most attention is the portion of the bill that deals with abortion.<\/p>\n

\"Actress<\/a>

Actress Cynthia Nixon speaks at the rally supporters of the new Women’s Equality Act held today in Albany. Photo: Karen DeWitt<\/p><\/div>\n

In its treatment of the bill<\/a>, the Albany Times-Union’s Capitol Confidential blog says the bill doesn’t expand on current abortion rights granted by Roe v. Wade and other court decisions (as opponents have claimed), but “puts a referendum on abortion before the State Legislature.” You can find the actual bill language on page 58 (in part J) of the bill<\/a>; the governor’s office describes it as follows:<\/p>\n

This bill would codify existing Supreme Court law to protect a woman\u2019s right to obtain an abortion prior to viability, or when necessary to protect her life or health. The law will ensure that New York\u2019s laws are consistent with the law of the land. Currently, New York State\u2019s law that protects a women\u2019s freedom of choice is outdated and does not conform to protections outlined in Roe v. Wade and current state practice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So that’s bound to be controversial. The Times-Union blog reports that “polls show a majority of New York voters support abortion rights along the lines of Roe, and consideration of the measure will have political consequences during the 2014 elections, particularly in the closely divided state Senate.” There’s some question of how the bill will fare in the Senate, which is Republicans control in coalition with the four-member Independent Democratic Conference. In the Democrat-led Assembly, the measure is expected to pass.<\/p>\n

Several religious groups, including the Roman Catholic church, have come out in\u00a0 favor of the bill with the exception of the abortion provision<\/a>. About 400 supporters of the bill held a rally just after the governor’s press conference.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why, just this morning Karen DeWitt reported on what’s ahead for the New York state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8552"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8561,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552\/revisions\/8561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}