Gov. Paterson and State Leadership to Address Family Planning Advocates Monday in Albany

ALBANY, NY (01/10/2010)(readMedia)-- SPEAKERS:

• Hon. David Paterson, Governor

• Hon. Sheldon Silver, Assembly Speaker

• Hon. Thomas DiNapoli, State Comptroller

• Hon. John Sampson, Senate Conference Leader

• Mylan L. Denerstein, Executive Deputy Attorney General for Social Justice representing Hon. Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General

• Keynote speaker and New York Times best-selling author, Michelle Goldberg

PROGRAM: Governor Paterson and state leaders will address hundreds of pro-choice activists from across the state as a kick-off to Family Planning Advocates of New York State's Day of Action. The advocates will converge on The Capitol to meet with elected officials on the critical need to fully fund family planning in the 2010-11 budget to keep the doors of family planning health care centers open.

Following remarks by the Governor and other state leaders, as well as a keynote address, activists will disperse through The Capitol and The Legislative Office Building for meetings with their legislators to urge the elected officials' support for funding and access to comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care.

KEYNOTE: Michelle Goldberg is the author of The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World, which tells the story of the global battle for reproductive rights and argues that the oppression of women is the great human rights issue of our time. Goldberg's work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, Glamour, The Los Angeles Times and many other publications. To learn more, visit her website at http://michellegoldberg.net/

FOCUS ISSUE:

The state must fully fund family planning in the 2010/2011 budget to

1) keep the doors of family planning centers open;

2) uphold its legislative policies that support access to family planning; and

3) make smart budget decisions.