The No More 24 Act would end the 24-hour workday for home attendants, mandating that all 24-hour shifts be split into two 12-hour shifts. Additionally, it would cap the maximum number of hours worked for home attendants to 50 hours per week. In New York City, home attendants–predominantly immigrant women of color–are forced to work sleepless 24-hour shifts, for multiple days in a row. They care for our elderly, disabled, or severely ill loved ones who need 24-hour care. Everywhere else in the world, 24-hour home care work is split into 8- or 12-hour shifts. 24-hour workdays destroy workers’ bodies and families, and endanger patients’ lives.

The continual flow of state and federal cases have clearly exposed the callous, brutal nature of the third-party profiteers/promoters who use threats, blackmail, trickery and violence to recruit, coerce and force the most vulnerable individuals into prostitution/the sex trade. This bill is critical to New York’s ability to protect survivors of human trafficking and hold those who exploit them for profit accountable.The trauma, fear and stigma associated with being bought and sold in prostitution and abused and threatened by pimps can take years to overcome, and delays in reporting these crimes of sexual violence. New York’s rape laws statute of limitations have been eliminated and extended and the Child’s Victim Act, followed by the Adult Survivors Act, expanded the window for survivors of sex abuse to file civil suits.

The Voluntary Intoxication Exclusion Act would bridge the gap in a major discrepancy within New York law. Someone who voluntarily becomes intoxicated and is then sexually assaulted is not granted the same legal protections as someone who is sexually assaulted while involuntarily intoxicated. This inconsistency in New York law makes it incredibly difficult for victims of sexual assault to receive equal protections under the law. This bill, if passed, would make a victim's status and nature of intoxication unable to be used in the defense of a sex crimes case.

Cyber flashing is an increasingly common form of sexual harassment impacting women in New York City and across the state. This modern form of harassment can take a number of forms and often involves the digital nonconsensual transmission of lewd still images, particularly of male genitalia and videos of male genitalia, nudes, and pornographic material, via text, email, direct message, or airdrop. NOW is urging lawmakers to support legislation that will make cyberflashing a violation offense under New York law and recognize this unwanted behavior as not only abusive but unlawful.

The legislation — based on a progressive legal framework supported by survivors of prostitution and sex trafficking now known as the Equality Model — decriminalizes people in prostitution in New York, while also vacating and expunging past convictions. It also gives survivors of commercial sexual exploitation access to comprehensive, trauma-informed services. The proposed legislation does not change laws against sex buying, promoting prostitution, brothel owning or sex tourism operations - all will remain fully illegal, and these exploiters will be held legally accountable for these crimes.

S6358/A2712 would protect child sex trafficking survivors from being prosecuted as adults for charges which arose from acts forced by their trafficker or when they have been alleged to commit a crime against their trafficker. This legislation enables children charged with crimes, or adults who were charged as children, to request a hearing to determine if the person they are accused of harming ever committed a sex act against them or if the alleged charges were a direct result of child trafficking. The bill is named for Sara Kruzan, who at age 17, was sentenced to life in prison for killing her trafficker who had groomed her since the age of 11 for a life of exploitation in the sex trade. Sara was shown no compassion by a judicial system that tried her as an adult, and neither her age nor the extreme trauma she had experienced were taken into account. This bill would authorize judges to consider the impact of trauma and exploitation on survivors of child trafficking in these cases.

The invasive and sexist practice of so-called “virginity testing” is still happening in the U.S. Subjecting girls to any form of “virginity testing” is just another form of sexual assault and a direct violation of their bodily integrity and privacy. The practice reflects the antiquated and oppressive standards society still holds for girls and young women, and it is in no way accepted as valid by the medical community. In fact, the United Nations and the World Health Organization co-wrote a statement calling to end virginity testing around the world. This legislation would ban virginity testing in New York State, prohibiting medical practitioners from performing these examinations and subjecting them to penalties if they breach the ban. Any “virginity tests” performed outside of a professional medical setting would be considered sexual assault under the proposal.

In 2022 the Violence Against Women Act was at long last reauthorized and strengthened and includes significant funding for survivors, service providers, and prevention efforts. Critically, the legislation restores tribal jurisdiction over crimes of child violence, sexual violence, sex trafficking, and stalking.

Protects the right to abortion access by creating a safeguard against medically unnecessary restrictions or bans. Specifically, the Act would protect abortion access from bans prior to viability, restrictions on the ability to access medication abortion in the earliest weeks of pregnancy, requirements that doctors provide medically inaccurate or even false information to abortion seekers, and mandates for pregnant people to undergo invasive ultrasounds or waiting periods before allowing them to have an abortion.

A series of bills that will address the black maternal mortality rate. The bills will: invest in housing, transportation, nutrition, and other social determinants of health that influence maternal health outcomes; provide funding to community-based organizations; study maternal health risks facing women veterans and invest in VA maternity care coordination; grow and diversify the perinatal workforce; improve data collection to better understand the causes and solutions of the maternal health crisis; invest in maternal mental health care and substance use disorder treatments; improve maternal health care for incarcerated women; invest in digital tools like telehealth for underserved areas; and incentivize high-quality maternity care and continuity of health insurance coverage from pregnancy through one year postpartum.

Would ensure access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare for all women, regardless of their income level or source of their insurance coverage. If passed, this legislation will repeal the 1976 Hyde Amendment that made it illegal to use federal funds for abortion coverage.