By Nelson A. King
The New York Immigration Coalition
(NYIC), an umbrella policy and
advocacy organization for more than
200 groups in New York State, has welcomed
the NY HERO Act as a “huge
victory” for essential workers.
“COVID-19 continues to have an
enormous impact on our immigrant
essential workers across the state, many
of them farmworkers keeping our food
supply lines open at great risk to themselves
and their families,” said Murad
Awawdeh, NYIC’s executive director.
“With multiple variants and spikes
in COVID-19 cases, New York cannot
afford to waste any time in keeping everyone
safe and healthy,” he added. “That
is why the NY HERO Act will play such
a vital role in the recovery of our state
from the pandemic and protection from
future airborne infectious diseases.
“We applaud Gov. Hochul for recognizing
the evolving challenges posed by
this pandemic and for prioritizing the
health and well-being of our frontline
workers and every New Yorker,” Awawdeh
continued.
On Monday Gov. Kathy Hochul
announced that the commissioner
of health has designated COVID-19 a
highly contagious communicable disease
that presents a serious risk of
harm to the public health under New
York State’s HERO Act, which requires
all employers to implement workplace
safety plans in the event of an airborne
infectious disease, helping to prevent
workplace infections.
The NY HERO Act mandates extensive
new workplace health and safety
protections in response to the COVID-
19 pandemic.
Under the law, all employers are
required to adopt a workplace safety
plan, and implement it for all airborne
infectious diseases designated by the
New York State Department of Health.
Employers can adopt a model safety
plan as crafted by the New York State
Department of Labor, or develop their
own safety plan in compliance with
HERO Act standards.
“While we continue to increase our
vaccination numbers, the fight against
the Delta variant is not over, and we have
to do everything we can to protect our
workers,” Governor Hochul said. “This
designation will ensure protections are
in place to keep our workers safe and
support our efforts to combat the virus
and promote health and safety.”
She said the HERO Act’s purpose is
to ensure that businesses are prepared
with protocols and resources to protect
their employees and the public from the
spread of airborne infectious diseases,
like COVID’s Delta variant.
New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, speaks during a news conference, to announce criminal justice
reform in New York City, U.S., May 21, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid, File
James continues fight to protect
access to abortion services
Caribbean Life, SEPTEMBER 10-16, 2021 3
By Nelson A. King
New York Attorney General, Letitia
James, as part of a coalition of 21 attorneys
general, on Wednesday continued
her national fight to protect access to
reproductive health care.
In an amicus brief filed in the US
Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
in Planned Parenthood South Atlantic v.
Wilson, James and the coalition argued
that South Carolina’s “fetal heartbeat”
abortion regulations are unconstitutional
and jeopardize access to health
care as a whole.
Additionally, the coalition argued
that the collective impact of numerous
states across the country enacting
laws restricting or eliminating access
to abortion services harms health care
nationwide.
The coalition urged the Fourth Circuit
to uphold a lower court’s ruling
blocking the law.
“With more and more states passing
restrictive abortion laws, the constitutional
right to access safe and legal
abortions is at great risk,” James said.
“The unlawful efforts by South Carolina
and other states to deny individuals
their constitutionally-guaranteed rights
through ‘heartbeat’ laws will not go
unchallenged.
“I will always do everything within
my power to protect our bodies and our
choices,” she added.
In February 2021, South Carolina
passed the South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat
and Protection from Abortion
Act, which prohibits abortions upon
the detection of an embryonic or fetal
heartbeat, effectively banning abortion
after six weeks.
Immediately following the passage
of the Act, Planned Parenthood South
Atlantic filed suit seeking a preliminary
injunction, which the federal district
court granted. South Carolina appealed
that injunction to the Fourth Circuit.
In its amicus brief, the coalition
argues that access to safe and legal
abortion is an essential component of
reproductive health care and restrictive
abortion laws, like the South Carolina
Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from
Abortion Act, lead to worse health outcomes
for women.
The coalition also argues that laws
banning abortion after the detection of
a fetal heartbeat have harmful spillover
effects on miscarriage treatment and
other health care needs.
Further, the coalition maintains that
the restrictions the act places on women
could threaten residents of neighboring
states as well as those states’ health care
systems.
Joining Attorney General James and
in filing Wednesday’s amicus brief were
the attorneys general of Virginia, California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii,
Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada,
New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington
and the District of Columbia.
Wednesday’s action is just the latest
in a long list of measures James has
taken to protect access to reproductive
freedom since taking office.
In July 2021, she co-led a coalition
of 11 attorneys general in submitting a
comment letter to the US Department
of Health and Human Services, voicing
their support of a new, proposed rule
that would protect abortion coverage
nationwide.
In June 2021, Attorney General James
led a coalition of attorneys general in
submitting testimony to the congressional
record supporting passage of the
Women’s Health Protection Act.
The act would protect the constitutional
right to access an abortion by
prohibiting unnecessary restrictions —
passed at the state level — that undermine
the availability and safety of health
care services.
Earlier, in June 2021, James and a coalition
of attorneys general helped score a
major victory in the case Reproductive
Health Services v. Parson, after the US
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
affirmed a preliminary injunction
enjoining a Missouri law that, among
other things, banned abortions after as
early as eight weeks into pregnancy.
In January 2020, Attorney General
James and the coalition filed an amicus
brief in the case, challenging the constitutionality
of several, recently-enacted
abortion bans in the state of Missouri.
In April 2021, James secured an
agreement that ended the harassing and
obstructive behavior of two anti-choice
protesters at a Planned Parenthood location
in New York City.
On numerous occasions, the two
defendants threatened patients, escorts,
and health center staff entering the
facility.
The agreement came as a result of a
February 2021 lawsuit Attorney General
James filed against the two anti-choice
protestors for repeated violations of federal,
state and local clinic access laws.
NY HERO Act
‘huge victory’ for
essential workers:
NY Immigration
Coalition