Under Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York has double the national per capita abortion rate and fewer abortion restrictions than almost every other state. Rumored as a possible Democratic 2016 presidential candidate, Cuomo thinks he learned something from President Obama: the abortion train leads to the White House.
As usual for pro-abortion politicians, promoting the deaths of the most innocent in our society is sold as “health care” and as empowering – the preborn child being irrelevant, of course. And so it is with the Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Act: Its tenth point is the Reproductive Health Act, bill S438.
Cuomo says his goal is to reduce the number of abortions in New York and ensure women’s safety, but the RHA will likely increase the abortion rate and put women at higher risk. In New York City, 41 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion.
The politically correct, stated purpose of S438 is to “just” update “New York’s abortion and contraception laws to correct constitutional defects and ensure that abortion is treated as a health matter” and prohibit the state from “discriminating” against the exercise of “reproductive rights.”
The New York State Catholic Conference disagrees: “[The bill] is unnecessary, extreme and dangerous. The abortion expansion bill is uncompromising in its terms and extremely sweeping in scope.”
To start with, the proposed legislative changes are expected to green-light abortions past 24 weeks – potentially through a woman’s due date – even though polls consistently show most Americans oppose second-and third-trimester abortions, especially when the baby is viable, or able to live outside the womb.
Put into plain English, Cuomo means to proactively codify abortion-on-demand in New York, including partial birth abortion, under the premise that a mother might be emotionally threatened by letting the child live.
New York State Right to Life Committee says, “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.”
NYSRLC notes that the bill will allow non-physicians to perform abortions; removes criminal penalties even from unlawful abortions; prevents an unborn child who is the intended victim of a crime from being recognized as a victim; and prevents any limits on New York’s Medicaid policy of paying for abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy.
“The proposed Reproductive Health Act is a worst nightmare bill in New York, and in America,” says Chris Slattery, president of EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers in New York City. “If the State of New York and pro-life leaders nationwide do not organize against this bill, it will be a disaster. It will make NY State the new Late Term Abortion Capital.”
Alan Mehldau at Northern Westchester & Putnam Center for Life in Katonah, NY, agrees. His group has prepared at least two videos that they plan to air around the state opposing the bill.
The bill is filled with double-talk, making a feeble attempt at respectability.
For instance, “Section 6 of the bill amends the definition of ‘homicide’ to delete references to ‘unborn child’ and abortion.”
It later says: “The bill’s elimination of the Penal Law provisions pertaining to abortion does not mean that there are no sanctions available to punish an act, such as assault, which is committed against a pregnant woman without consent and results in termination of a pregnancy or renders a viable fetus non-viable. Depending on the circumstances, such injuries would constitute “physical injury” or “serious physical injury” to the woman, as those terms are defined by Penal Law.”
In essence, an unborn child cannot be a victim; therefore, killing of the child cannot be criminal but, “depending on circumstances,” may count as assault on the woman. Apparently, in New York mothers should not consider the killing of their unborn child a crime.
What if the woman suffers no physical injury but loses the child? Is that like a tree falling in the forest that no one hears? Again, for New York mothers, the answer would apparently be “Yes.”
It is not just the life of the baby that loses protection; the life of the woman also becomes secondary to abortion. The bill’s Summary of Provisions states: “Section 8 and 9 of the bill amend the first and second degree manslaughter statutes to delete the sections relating to causing a death of a female during the performance of an abortion.”
The RHA also precludes expanded informed consent laws or any other protective legislation such as requiring the notification of a parent when a minor girl undergoes an abortion.
Young girls in particular can pay a high price for a choice that is most often not theirs: Pro-abortion advocates Political Research Associates report that 64 percent of all abortions involve coercion; 54 percent of women were unsure of their decision, and yet 67 percent received no counseling beforehand, while 84 percent of those who received some counseling received inadequate counseling beforehand.
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Family Planning Advocates of New York State, a Planned Parenthood group, loves the bill: “The Reproductive Health Act is a common sense measure that represents New Yorkers’ values when it comes to a woman’s decisions about her health care.”
This abortion push is not about common sense, nor does it make women safer nor protect human rights. Such claims are beyond the realm of any values that are rational or even sane.
But, of course, this has nothing to do with reason or women’s health or rights. This bill has everything to do with a governor’s political disdain for most women as little more than ignorant, abortion-hungry voters.
And, perhaps, a cynical track that Cuomo thinks could lead to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
LifeNews Note: Paul Rondeau is the executive director of American Life League. This originally appeared at the Washington Times and is reprinted with permission.
