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Important Committee Hearing Next Week
The Judiciary Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature will be hearing four important sexual health-related bills on Beacon Hill on Tuesday, July 14th. We need you to contact your legislators to express support for two of the bills and opposition to the other two bills.
Please take a moment to ask your state senator and state representative to support our priority bills this session which are a bill to repeal archaic anti-choice laws which are still on the Massachusetts books, and a bill relative to consent and counseling for minors, and oppose a biased counseling bill and a bill to repeal the Buffer Zone Law.
If you would rather call your legislators, the State House Switchboard number is 617-722-2000. If you don’t know who your legislators are, you can find them here.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Tell the Judiciary Committee you support sexual health.
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I am writing to ask you to contact the Judiciary Committee before their hearing on July 14th to express your support for two bills that protect sexual health services and opposition to two bills which are hostile to these services.
The two positive bills are:
1) An Act Relative to Updating the Public Health Laws (Senate Bill 1610, House Bill 1745, Lead Sponsors: Senator Harriette Chandler and Representative Ellen Story) This bill would repeal three archaic and unconstitutional laws that could harm women's health if they were ever reinstated. The three laws are: a complete abortion ban, a requirement that all abortions done after the first trimester be done in a hospital, and a law prohibiting the sale of contraception to single people. These laws were written for a different era, and they should be repealed to reflect the Commonwealth's commitment to protecting access to health care.
2) An Act Relative to Consent and Counseling for Certain Minors (House Bill 1746, Lead Sponsor: Representative Ellen Story) This bill would expand the counseling and consent criteria for minors seeking abortions. This bill will help protect young women who need timely access to medical care by having the law reflect family structures across the Commonwealth, and it would also allow licensed medical professionals to give counseling instead of forcing a young woman to go through an impersonal and costly court process.
The two negative bills are:
3) House Bill 1670, the so-called "Woman's Right to Know" biased counseling bill. Massachusetts already has an effective informed consent law which provides patients with all of the information they need. The sole purpose of this bill is to restrict access to abortion and cause unnecessary delays for women seeking reproductive health care services.
4) House Bill 3840, which would repeal the state's Buffer Zone Law. This law, which was just passed last session, has been an effective tool for balancing freedom of speech and freedom from harassment. Recent events have shown that the Buffer Zone Law is needed now more than ever.
Again I ask that you express your support for the first two bills and opposition to the second two bills to the Judiciary Committee before their hearing on the 14th.
As your constituent, I look forward to receiving your response.
Sincerely,
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