On behalf of the Assembly Democratic Conference, the Legislative Women's Caucus including Assemblywoman Janet Duprey, and in concert with the New York State's Women's Equality Coalition, members of which are here today, I am very proud to report that the Assembly - The People's House - has passed the Women's Equality Act, ALL TEN POINTS as we promised.

In a few moments, you will hear from:

• Assemblywoman Michele Titus, the Chair of the Legislative Women's Caucus and the lead sponsor of the legislation;

• Tracey Brooks, the Chief Executive Officer of Family Planning Advocates of New York;

• Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union;

• Suzy Ballantyne, Director of Government Affairs for the New York State AFL-CIO;

• Andrea Miller, President of NARAL Pro-Choice New York;

• Dina Bakst, Co-Founder and Co-President of "A Better Balance;"

• And Bev Neufeld, Director of the New York City Equal Pay Coalition.

Invariably, the question will be asked, "Why not pass the nine bills your colleagues across the hall say they are willing to consider?"

The simple answer is this:

A woman residing in the State of New York is not - and never should be considered - nine-tenths of a citizen.

The women of this state expect and deserve full equality, not almost equality, not close to equality … FULL EQUALITY!

Thousands of women from across this state, represented here by their Assembly leaders, petitioned their government to address the inequality inherent in our culture; petitioned their government to address the threat to reproductive freedom that we see rising like a storm cloud across the nation.

The Governor, in his State of the State Address, proclaimed this state's commitment to advancing a women's equality agenda.

Our responsibility, our obligation, was to act on the issues New York women identified as we in the Assembly Majority have been doing for years.

So, once again, we joined with members of the Coalition and pushed a strong, ten-point agenda based on legislation that this House has been advancing for a long time.

From the beginning, we understood that there are leaders who oppose certain points of this agenda, but we would not water down our agenda to sufficiently placate them in the hope that they would step forward and act.

When the time came, we did women New Yorkers the simple honor of voting on the agenda - the entire agenda - that they need, that they demanded and that they deserve.

I believe that the Women's Equality Act ranks among the more crucial legislative agendas we have passed in the last decade.

And I believe it is why women voted to give New York State the elected leadership that we have:

Because they remember last Fall and the shocking remarks of former Missouri Congressman Todd Akin;

Because they foresaw the attacks on women's health perpetrated by the House of Representatives just days ago;

Because they believe in equal pay, in better shielding women from domestic violence, in punishing as severely as possible those who engage in human trafficking;

Because they deserve fairness and reasonable accommodation in housing and in the workplace;

Because a woman should always have the right to own and control her own body.

New York helped lead the country over four decades ago - even before Roe v. Wade became the law of the land - and with bipartisan support, the Assembly leads today by sending the Women's Equality Act to the State Senate to make it law.

The women of New York await their answer.

I am proud of my Assembly colleagues for passing this Women's Equality Agenda and for the many fights for equality that we have under taken over the years.

Together, we are honored to have the support of the Women's Equality Coalition.

And as I told the Legislative Women's Caucus last week, we have many more steps to take on the road to full equality for women in the Empire State.