"BULLY BILL" SCHEDULED FOR FINAL READING BY BOTH HOUSE & SENATE
From Hawaii Family Forum, April 29, 2017
I wanted to send you an update on SB501 CD1. The current version "requires all limited service pregnancy centers to disclose the availability of and enrollment information for reproductive health services. Defines limited service pregnancy center. Establishes privacy and disclosure requirements for individual records and information. Authorizes civil penalties and civil actions for enforcement and remedy." (CD1)
The bill will have it's final reading in the House on Tuesday, May 2, 2017, during the 9:00 a.m. Floor Session. The Senate reading is also scheduled for May 2, 2017, during the 10:00 a.m. Floor Session.
According to the Committee Report, these changes were made in Conference:
- Amending the definition of limited service pregnancy center to establish that a limited service pregnancy center does not include a health care facility and providing a definition of health care facility;
- Inserting language to require that the written notice and written pregnancy test result that limited service pregnancy centers are required to provide be provided in English or another language requested by the client or patient;
- Inserting language to establish that this measure is not intended to require the Department of Health to regulate or oversee limited service pregnancy centers;
- Making it effective upon its approval; and
- Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.
We will be publishing detailed information about the bill and it's potential legal challenge once local ADF allied attorney Jim Hochberg (the attorney who will take up any legal challenge on behalf of the local faith-based pregnancy centers) has a chance to review the current form.
As always, we will be providing an end of session report, within the next few weeks. We are grateful for all the calls, emails, petitions and capitol visits that many of you participated in. But most importantly, we stand with the courageous men and women of the pregnancy centers in Hawai'i (A Place for Women in Waipio, Pearson Foundation, Aloha Pregnancy Care and Counseling Centers, Malama Pregnancy Center (MAUI) and the Kona Pregancy Center.
Because we believe so strongly in the work of these centers, Hawaii Family Forum has made a donation to each of them as a show of solidarity. WILL YOU CONSIDER DOING THE SAME?
The Pregnancy Centers are under attack more than ever before, and their mission (or crime if you believe the testimony of misguided Planned Parenthood)? To help women (and men) make decisions that will not only save their babies, but strengthen their family unit and help them make decisions that won't haunt them the rest of their lives. Sure, some women choose to terminate the life within them, but Pregnancy Centers give women a CHOICE. Please consider sending a gift to these courageous centers.
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To make a donation to A Place for Women in Waipio, click here.
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To make a donation to Pearson Foundation, click here.
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To make a donation to Aloha Pregnancy Care & Counseling Centers, click here.
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To make a donation to the Maui Pregnancy Center (Malama Pregnancy Center), click here.
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To make a donation to the Kona Pregnancy Center, click here.
All this talk about choice and pregnancy makes me think of my own mother who was suffering in pain when she was pregnant with me. Her doctor gave her the choice to terminate me and she chose to save my life. After I was born, she had to have surgery, but my life was her choice and I am forever grateful! I send this email with my heartful and deep gratefulness for the women and men who will continue to shine a beacon of hope and light into our community in Hawai'i!
I am also grateful to Jim Hochberg who spent countless hours at the State Capitol and is willing to defend the constitutional rights of the pregnancy centers to uphold their deeply held religious convictions in this community by ministering to people who choose to visit the centers!
Have a great weekend with your family!
Eva