We gained vastly more support than NOW’s and SFV’s campaign combined, and garnered considerable media attention, but A330 nevertheless failed to pass.
Genuine shared parenting/joint custody is rare in New York and sole custody for mothers is the norm. A330, a shared parenting bill, would "require the court to award custody to both parents in the absence of allegations that shared parenting would be detrimental to the child."
Working with the Coalition of Fathers and Families New York and the American Coalition for Fathers & Children, nearly 10,000 of our supporters wrote or called the New York Assembly Committee on Children & Families in support of the bill. Alarmed by the strength of our campaign, the National Organization for Women and Stop Family Violence mobilized its supporters in a counter-campaign.
Genuine shared parenting/joint custody is rare in New York and sole custody for mothers is the norm. A330 would:
Numerous studies show that shared parenting is what’s best for kids. To cite one, Robert Bauserman, Ph.D, conducted a meta-analysis of 33 studies between 1982 to 1999 that examined 1,846 sole-custody and 814 joint-custody children. Bauserman found that "Children in joint custody arrangements had less behavior and emotional problems, had higher self-esteem, better family relations and school performance than children in sole custody arrangements."
Our campaign gained media attention from Fox News, World Net Daily, Whistleblower magazine, and the Times Union in Albany, New York where the Bill's fate was decided.
We debated NOW's Marcia Pappas on the merits of the bill in the Times Union—see our Supporting the child by order of the court: Family law proposes to keep bonds strong and Pappas’ Joint custody bill not in child's interest.
We gained vastly more support than NOW’s and SFV’s campaign combined, and garnered considerable media attention, but A330 nevertheless failed to pass.