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Health & Fitness

Barbara L'Italien's Statement on Jim Lyons' Record

Barbara L'Italien's response to Jim Lyons' attempt to hide from his record.

Jim Lyons has made his legislative priorities clear.  In his first two years as our State Representative he has advocated to eliminate counseling for rape victims and gay students, and attempted to defund school health programs and teen pregnancy prevention programs.  Lyon's narrow agenda extends from an ideology that I do not share and I do not believe this narrow ideology reflects the values of our community.  Jim Lyons might want us to ignore his narrow ideology, but here are the facts:

Jim Lyons wrote a bill, House Bill 3353, that would eliminate health insurance coverage for counseling the victims of rape and sexual assault. 

Jim Lyons co-sponsored a bill, House Bill 2239, to repeal the buffer zone around family planning clinics--a zone that protects patients and employees. 

Jim Lyons tried to defund all family planning services, eliminate all funding for teen pregnancy prevention, and zero out all funding for school based health services including funding for school nurses with amendments 575, 577, and 584 to the budget. 

Jim Lyons co-sponsored a bill, House Bill 1060, that would make it harder for gay students to receive counseling at school. 

Jim Lyons voted against the budget that provides local aid to our schools and towns because .0003% of the budget funded a sexual education website.

Jim Lyons may want to run from his legislative record, but a simple truth still stands: Jim Lyons has an ideological agenda that's wrong for our families, wrong for our community and wrong for the Merrimack Valley. 

I represent a more balanced approach. My very first vote in the State Legislature was against Tom Finneran for Speaker and I was placed in a basement office for breaking party lines; but I was still able to work together with Democrats and Republicans and advocate for the real concerns of our families. In 2010, I again broke with my party to vote against the Lawrence bailout because I believed working together for financial responsibility was more important than partisan politics.  Had a receiver for Lawrence been in place, the decision to fire the currently indicted Lawrence police officers could have been made by a non-political figure, rather than Mayor Lantigua.  The stakes in this election are clear. On Tuesday, November 6th, I ask for your vote for State Representative.

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