Should Minors Be Allowed to Consent to Medical Procedures?

New York State rushes to pass three bad bills

It is the final day of the New York State legislative session and there are three bills we have our eyes on:

Mandatory Adult Database bill - A7154 (McDonald-D) / S1531 (Hoylman-D)

Minor Consent to Vaccination bill - A276b (Paulin-D)/ S762a (Krueger-D) 

Medical Exemption Reporting bill A837 (Dinowitz-D) / S1946 (Hoylman-D)

These bills have been rushed through allowing no time for public comment.

This is our last opportunity to STOP these bills before they become law.

New Yorkers! Click HERE for more information about the bills and how to take action.

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As this year’s legislative session comes to a close in Albany, we want to highlight the work of New York activists Michael Kane and John Gilmore. From tracking the bills to organizing protests to gathering the necessary resources to make it all happen, Kane and Gilmore have made process accessible to busy parents.

On January 10th, 2023, the very first day of the session and the day of Governor Kathy Hochul's State of the State speech, Kane and Gilmore organized more than one thousand parents and advocates from across New York state to rally in Albany to meet their lawmakers. Following this event, Kane and Gilmore kept the momentum going by encouraging people to schedule in-district meetings with their representatives.

Ultimately, it was the energy generated by these actions that brought New York State lawmakers under national scrutiny in May. Kane and Gilmore had a rally scheduled for May 16 and as the date approached, it was announced that the Assembly Health Committee would vote on the Minor Consent Bill to Vaccination on May 9. With this, Kane as Gilmore made a call-to-action and thousands of New Yorkers called and emailed their elected official, successfully lobbying them to postpone the vote for one week - May 16th.

“So by luck our rally was planned for the very day the Minor Consent Bill bill was to have its very first vote,” exclaimed Kane.

On May 16th, Kane and Gilmore along with about forty parents and advocates filed into a small committee room where the Assembly Health Committee was preparing to discuss and vote on the Minor Consent Bill.

Although the committee did pass the concerning bills highlighted above, a clip of the meeting filmed by Cafecitobreak, an independent news platform founded by two sisters from NYC, went viral. Between social media and CHD TV, Kane told us “It was viewed well over a million times.”

Additionally, on his website, Kane published article featuring the pictures of all sixteen elected officials who voted for the minor consent bill. The article was read over ten thousand times and shared widely across social media.

Kane noted that “mainstream” news sources still refused to cover the story, “But it didn't matter.”

“One reason we believe the Senate is hesitant on these bills is because a handful of Senators lost their seats in the 2022 election cycle, and many only held onto their seats by the skin of their teeth. Everyone knows medical freedom is now a voting issue. We have many supporters in Albany who speak at our rallies, love to take meetings with us and propose good bills the protect medical freedom. When people show up to vote, and vote people out who oppose medical freedom it has a resonating impact. We don't have to win every election to have a major impact; we just need to win - or almost win - enough elections to make the elected think twice before going against medical freedom.”

We are spotlighting activists across the country who are helping to restore parental rights and commonsense safeguards for children. Please share suggestions in comments!