Issues surrounding privacy and safety are central to FPA’s work in the new State Legislative session as federal threats to family planning services increase.

FPA once again presses for safeguarding privacy of sensitive hospital inpatient information by campaigning for the requirement that all data requests must be reviewed by the Data Protection Review Board.

FPA succeeds in preventing the Legislature from passing a parental consent bill. This is a tremendous grassroots success reflecting the growth of New York’s pro-choice movement since 1976 when a similar bill passed both houses.

On the national level, FPA organizes a successful petition campaign to block a Legislative Resolution calling for a U.S. Constitutional Convention to write a “human life” amendment, deeming that life begins the moment of conception, into the federal constitution.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court (McRae v. Harris) upholds the right of Congress and State Legislatures to refuse to pay for medically necessary abortions. Federal Medicaid funding is no longer available for abortion services for poor women.