Pressure Against Cuomo Stopping Pro-Abortion Bill in New York

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 10, 2013   |   5:51PM   |   Albany, NY

Leading pro-life advocates appear to be successfully pushing back against a bill in the state legislature that would take virtually every pro-life law off the books and promote late-term abortions.

Pro-life organizations have been putting pressure on lawmakers to rebuff pro-abortion Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s efforts to promote the bill. As the National Catholic Register reports:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s political blitzkrieg won victories for same-sex “marriage” and gun-control advocates, but mounting opposition by Catholics and their pro-life and evangelical allies have slowed down his efforts to expand abortion in New York.

Pro-life state Sen. Ruben Diaz, D-Bronx,  said those efforts now give him a glimmer of hope that Cuomo’s plans to expand abortion in an omnibus women’s equality bill can be stopped.

“Little by little, the pressure is working,” Diaz said.

Just a few weeks ago, Diaz said it looked like Cuomo had the votes to ram the legislation through the 63-member Senate. But strong public opposition led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and the New York Catholic Conference (NYCC) to Cuomo’s inclusion of the Reproductive Health Act in his women’s equality bill has raised awareness about the abortion expansion and generated unease among some lawmakers, Diaz said.

“I feel more positive that this bill will not pass, because many people are concerned with the late-term abortion part of it,” he said.

The Catholic bishops of New York held a Jan. 28 meeting convened by Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany to discuss Cuomo’s intended expansion of legal abortion as part of his women’s equality agenda.

“The bishops vowed to do everything they can to fight this bill,” said Kathleen Gallagher, spokeswoman for the NYCC. According to Gallagher, the meeting decided each bishop would take initiative within his own diocese to mobilize grassroots opposition.

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New York state Senate Republicans are slamming a proposal New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing in the New York state legislature that pro-life advocates say would promote late-term abortions.

The bill, pro-life advocates say, would elevate abortion to a fundamental right and have New York on record saying the state can’t discriminate on abortion in benefits or services or anything else it provides.

“Cuomo’s legislation, she said, would make illegal abortion restrictions, such as parental-notification laws, informed-consent laws, restrictions on taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion bans of any kind,” said Kathleen Gallagher, the New York’s Catholic Conference director of pro-life activities.

According to a new report, New York’s Senate Republicans, who may have the votes to stop the measure from progressing, are slamming the governor. Even lawmakers who support abortion think it goes too far.

The New York Right to Life Committee provided LifeNews with more details on what Cuomo is pushing in the legislature.

The radical abortion bill, the “Reproductive Health Act” would make changes to current NYS law that represent the opinion of only a tiny subset of New Yorkers who hold extremist pro-abortion views. By writing “fundamental reproductive rights” into NYS state law, the bill would provide full legal cover to the tragic and well-entrenched practice of abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy.

This bill is the product of the extremist pro-abortion lobby that takes exception to reasonable, common sense laws, such as parental consent and limits on government payment for abortions. The advocates of this bill are the same who oppose the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban that the Supreme Court upheld as constitutional in 2007.

S.438 is meant to ensure that the radical abortion industry in New York can continue to thrive without reservation, or common-sense protections for anyone other than abortionists, to address its out of control practice in New York State.

The Reproductive Health Act would, among other things:

  • Allow non-physicians to perform abortions;
  • Remove criminal penalties even from unlawful abortions;
  • Prevent an unborn child who is the intended victim of a crime from being recognized as a victim;
  • Prevent any limitation on use of taxpayer funds to curtail New York’s Medicaid policy of paying for abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy;
  • Deceitfully redefine pregnancy as beginning at implantation – not fertilization;
  • Falsely redefine fetal (child) viability and
  • Unleash new assaults on the consciences of those who oppose participating in abortion – health care professionals, hospitals, hospital residents, and health insurance providers.