October 14, 2009 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jean Baric, Feminists Choosing Life of New York
Phone: (585) 323-9149
Email: FCLNYPres1@yahoo.com
Lawsuit seeks to end NYS compensation for women’s eggs
ALBANY, N.Y. — Feminists Choosing Life of New York (FCLNY) filed suit Friday in New York State Supreme Court (Albany) to block the use of taxpayer funds to pay women recruited to “donate” their eggs for embryonic stem cell research.
FCLNY Executive Director, Wendy McVeigh stated: “New York State has the responsibility to protect women. Instead, the state is using taxpayers’ dollars to entice young, economically vulnerable women to experiment in this medically risky procedure.”
New York State is the first governmental entity anywhere in the U.S. to approve taxpayer money to pay women to undergo an invasive procedure to harvest eggs for embryonic stem cell research.
The legal complaint was filed on October 9, 2009 in Feminists Choosing Life of New York v. Empire State Stem Cell Board. In part, the complaint states, “The Payment for Eggs Program provides significant monetary inducements to women to engage in this painful and risky procedure, which in part disproportionately appeals to economically vulnerable women.... (it)… fails to satisfactorily provide for informed consent and other safeguards to ensure adequate disclosure to women of the risks of egg harvesting.”
In 2007, the New York State Legislature enacted a new Title V-A to Article 2 of the Public Health Act, committing $600 million for stem cell research. On June 11, 2009, the Empire State Stem Cell Board (ESSCB), which was given the responsibility for administering the funds, passed a resolution authorizing significant taxpayer monies of up to $10,000 per donation to be used to compensate young women who donate their eggs for research.
Egg stimulation and extraction carries significant health risks, including, but not limited to, ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome, clotting disorders, kidney damage, ovarian twisting, pulmonary embolism, damage to future reproductive ability, and stroke.
FCLNY also argues that research on adult stem cells, which are plentiful and don’t involve the ethical and medical concerns of embryonic stem cell research, have produced positive results that make the egg donation program funded by taxpayer monies excessive spending.
The National Institutes of Health does not permit federal dollars to be spent on stem cell research that uses embryos derived from procedures that "require women to donate oocytes [eggs], due to the "health and ethical implications, including the health risk to the [egg] donor." The National Academies of Sciences agrees: “No cash or in kind payments should be provided for donating oocytes (eggs) for research purposes.”
April 18, 2007
Contact: Kelly Vincent-Brunacini
(585) 359-4838
Feminist Group in New York Applauds Supreme Court Decision Upholding Ban on 'Partial Birth Abortion'.
Feminists Choosing Life, a pro-woman organization that supports alternatives to abortion in New York, applauds a US Supreme Court ruling today that said partially delivering a child alive, then killing it, is not consitutional. The decision prohibits "a method of abortion in which an unborn child is killed just inches before completion of the birth process", the opinion reads. More than 6 pages of the decision describes in grisley detail what the Court describes as the 'overt act that kills a partially delivered fetus'
Kelly Vincent-Brunacini, President of Feminists Choosing Life, says, "Roe v Wade in 1973 gave birth to Doe v Bolton, a ruling who's 'health exception' extended the right to abortion from Roe's viability perameter to include all 9 months of pregnancy. This monumental decision today marks the first time Doe v Bolton's overly broad 'health exception' was narrowed." The decision also states that the exception for the 'health' of the mother in partial birth abortion will be limited to a life threatening situation.
Riddled throughout the 39 page opinion are references to the rights of mothers to be informed about alternative procedures, about women's grief after abortion, and about the health effects or lack of health effects on mothers. "For women who have suffered emotional trauma from abortion, this is good news," Vincent-Brunacini said.
In response to Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups' claims that the decision will erode the unrestricted right to abortion. Vincent-Brunacini says, "This is like the National Rifle Association which refuses to compromise on the most innocuous gun control attempt. Every industry is restricted and regulated, and the abortion industry is no exception."
The Supreme Court also upheld the ban on partial birth abortion as an 'inhumane' abortion procedure which 'perverts' the moral dignity of the medical profession.
Feminists Choosing Life is a member of Consistent Life, a network of over 200 pro-peace, pro-justice and pro-life organizations that oppose all violence.