To: President Donald Trump, The New York State House, The New York State Senate, Governor Andrew Cuomo, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate

Stop our tax dollars from funding crisis pregnancy centers

All women need and deserve accurate and fact-based information regarding pregnancy and their options. Taxpayer dollars should never be used to facilitate feeding lies and misinformation to women, especially not to support a religion-based agenda. Please stand up and say "No" to taxpayer funding of these dishonest, religion-based faux medical facilities.

Why is this important?

Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) outnumber real women's health centers by 3 to 1. These centers do not have medical personnel on staff, do not provide effective contraception to women or men, provide no actual health services and dupe vulnerable women into believing that they are actual medical facilities.

According to Salon.com: "More often than not, CPCs — which now outnumber abortion clinics by an estimated 3 to 1 — can be misleading, manipulative or downright coercive, pushing a distinctly antiabortion agenda that relies heavily on lying to clients. Investigations have time and again uncovered evidence that these centers, many of which are religiously affiliated, purposely attempt to portray themselves as secular medical providers that provide comprehensive care for women facing unintended pregnancies. They don't, though, and often don’t even have licensed medical professionals on the premises."

In fact, California just passed a law requiring CPCs to disclose to women ALL of their legal options regarding their pregnancies. Not surprisingly, this is being challenged in court, as the CPCs wish to continue their blatant campaign to misinform and lie to women.

Even worse, there are those in Congress who wish to honor these institutions who knowingly take taxpayer money to misinform and harass women. From the Lady Parts Justice League: "Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) introduced resolutions in the Senate and House that designate the week of November 8, as "National Pregnancy Center Week." National Pregnancy Centers are not medical institutions. They are not staffed by doctors or trained medical professionals. These are fake clinics created by anti-choice activists with the sole purpose of shaming women into continuing their pregnancies. They actively deprive women of reproductive health information in the name of discouraging them from choosing abortion."

It is a complete waste of taxpayer dollars, not to mention an affront to the basic tenet of "separation of church and state" to continue to funnel taxpayer dollars to these religion based institutions.

Please stand up and say "No" to taxpayer funding of these dishonest, religion based faux medical facilities.