The 2024 Session In Review: Promoting Strong Families
Written by on January 4, 2025
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New York Families Foundation’s work covers four different broad areas of public policy: Protecting human life, promoting strong families, preserving religious liberty, and proclaiming justice and mercy. This article will summarize the events of the 2024 legislative session as they relate to promoting strong families.
The Legislature did not pass high-impact legislation relating to family policy in 2024. However, a few family-related bills of interest did become law.
First, Gov. Hochul signed two new laws that will promote the health of pregnant mothers and their babies. Bill S.201-Cleare/A.2656-Walker, which will allow pregnant mothers to enroll in health insurance without paying a penalty, was enacted as Chapter 420 of the Laws of 2024. This law will remove cost-related barriers to health care. In addition, Bill S.1965-A-Addabbo/A.3865-A-Gunther, which requires health insurance to cover prenatal vitamins that have been prescribed for a pregnant mother, was enacted as Chapter 421 of the Laws of 2024.
Second, Gov. Hochul spearheaded the passage of two bills to safeguard children online. The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) For Kids Act (Bill S.7694-A-Gounardes/A.8148-A-Rozic), which was signed into law as Chapter 120 of the Laws of 2024, directs social media companies not to furnish certain types of internet feeds to minors absent parental consent. The New York Child Data Protection Act (Bill S.7695-B-Gounardes/A.8149-B-Rozic), which was signed into law as Chapter 121 of the Laws of 2024, bars websites from sharing minors’ personal data absent informed consent or certain other specific conditions. While NYFF would have preferred that parental involvement in children’s social media use be prioritized more highly in these two laws, we support them nonetheless, as excessive social media use has been shown to be harmful to young people’s mental health.
Gov. Hochul signed one new law that sends a problematic message about marriage. Bill S.8744-Krueger/A.4714-Lavine, enacted as Chapter 462 of the Laws of 2024, repealed New York’s existing law that made adultery a crime. The number of persons charged with adultery in recent decades is minimal. However, as NYFF Executive Director Jason McGuire commented, “The fact that the law banned adultery—even if that law was almost never enforced—sent an important message. The message is this: Marriage vows are not to be taken lightly. When a married person commits adultery, that act either damages their marriage or destroys it. The consequences of adultery, especially in the lives of children, are grievous. A healthy, loving society does everything within its power to encourage the formation and continuation of healthy, loving families.”
NYFF is pleased to note that the State Senate passed the Center for Fatherhood Initiatives Bill (Bill S.8892-Bailey-A/A.9811-Dais) in 2024. The bill would establish of a Center for Fatherhood Initiatives that would issue state grants to programs that promote healthy fatherhood. NYFF hopes that the Center for Fatherhood Initiatives Bill will become law in a future year.
On a more sobering note, the State Senate also passed Gender ‘Transitions’ for Minors Act in 2024. Bill S.7506-A-Hoylman-Sigal/A.7687-A-Bronson would insulate parents and health care providers from various negative consequences arising from their roles in obtaining “gender-affirming care” (and, in some instances, abortions) for minors from other states. Chillingly, nothing in the Gender ‘Transitions’ for Minors Act would prevent the use of opposite-sex hormones or “gender reassignment surgery” on minors. The state of New York should prohibit the use of puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones, and “gender reassignment surgery” on minors with gender dysphoria. These largely untested practices can have serious lifelong consequences, and many people who have undergone such “treatments” have regretted them later.
Pro-family bills that did not receive floor votes this year include the Minimum Medicaid Coverage for Post-Childbirth Hospitalization (Bill S.1241-Sanders/A.5966-Cook), which would require Medicaid to cover at least 48 hours of inpatient hospital care for mothers and their newborns; an adoption tax deduction bill (Bill S.1661-Bailey); a tax deduction bill for parents who adopt children from New York’s foster care system (Bill S.598-A-Salazar/A.9240-Solages); a tax deduction bill for parents who adopt children with special needs (Bill A.1631-Simon); a stillborn child tax credit bill (Bill S.4460-Mayer; Bill A.3936-Bichotte Hermelyn); and a burial rights notification bill (Bill S.90-Tedisco/A.242-Eichenstein), which would require doctors to notify mothers who have miscarried that they have the right to obtain a fetal death report and a burial permit.
Anti-family bills that did not receive floor votes in 2024 include a mandated comprehensive sex education bill (Bill A.4604-Gonzalez-Rojas), which would require public schools to offer comprehensive sex education to all students in grades K-12; the so-called Modern Families Act (Bill S.1787-Hoylman-Sigal/A.10259-Rules (Gonzalez-Rojas)), which would allow more than two parents to be granted custody of a child; Bill S.762-A-Krueger/A.276-B-Paulin, which would codify an existing regulation that allows medical professionals to vaccinate minors against sexually transmitted diseases without parental notification or consent; and the Keeping Parents in the Dark About Their Kids’ Health Act (Bill S.8352-May/A.6761-Reyes), which would allow “decisionally-capable” minors to consent to their own medical care without parental involvement.
The post The 2024 Session In Review: Promoting Strong Families appeared first on New York Families Foundation.
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