Oppose Efforts to Further Expand Access to Abortion

Summary

In April 2007, former Governor Eliot Spitzer submitted a Program Bill entitled the “Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act.” This bill would establish a “fundamental right to privacy” in New York statute to guarantee that abortion is protected and available. In the words of the former Governor, the bill would “ensure that New York’s women have the same or stronger reproductive rights as those currently afforded under Roe (v Wade).” Essentially the same bill was reintroduced in the 2011-2012 Legislative Session as S.2844 (Stewart-Cousins)/A.6112 (Glick), the “Reproductive Health Act,” and is supported by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Conference Position

Because of the Catholic Church’s fundamental teaching that human life is sacred from the first moment of creation, the Conference strongly opposes this legislation. The Conference believes that every human life must be respected in law, including the woman facing an unplanned pregnancy and the innocent unborn child she carries in her womb.

Rationale

This bill seeks to ensure that abortions are legal throughout all nine months of pregnancy if they are deemed necessary to protect the life or “health” of the mother. Courts have interpreted the term “health” so broadly as to include social, economic and emotional distress factors, rendering the term meaningless.

Current state law says abortions are legal in New York through 24 weeks of pregnancy (Article 125 Penal Law), but outlawed after that unless they are necessary to save a woman’s life. Because of flawed court decisions like Roe v. Wade, this law cannot be enforced, so abortion is already legal in New York through the third trimester of pregnancy for reasons of life or “health.” This legislation ignores the state’s legitimate interest in protecting the life of fully formed third-trimester children in the womb.

This bill would allow post-viability abortions to be performed on an out-patient basis in clinics that go virtually unregulated by public health authorities, endangering both women and unborn children. Moreover, the bill would not allow for the type of support facilities necessary to assist a baby who might be born alive in the course of an abortion.

While the bill provides very limited conscience protection for individual providers, it could require every institution licensed or funded by the state – including religious hospitals, agencies and schools – to support abortion, provide coverage for abortion, or allow abortions to be performed. The bill declares that “the state shall not discriminate” against the exercise of the fundamental right to abortion in the “provision of benefits, facilities, services or information.”

The bill could undermine successful programs such as the Maternity & Early Childhood Foundation. Because they “favor childbirth over abortion,” such programs could be ruled “discriminatory” against the fundamental right to abortion established by this bill.

The bill seeks to make abortion virtually immune from any state regulation or restriction. Reasonable regulations such as parental notification for abortions performed on minor children, informed consent for pregnant women regarding the risks and alternatives to the procedure, and restrictions on taxpayer funding would not be permissible under the bill.

Yet all such regulations are completely permissible under Roe v Wade and subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and a majority of states have enacted them. Thirty-five states require parental involvement in a child’s abortion decision, 32 states require counseling before an abortion is performed, and 32 states restrict Medicaid funding of abortion. The bill would completely shut down the legislative process with regard to the issue of abortion.

The bill would repeal the requirement in current law that says only doctors can perform abortions. The bill would allow any health care practitioner to perform the procedure. This dangerous and extreme change clearly puts women’s health at risk, and mirrors a national abortion strategy to expand the scope of practice for various health care practitioners to specifically include abortion.

For all of these reasons, the New York State Catholic Conference strongly opposes this measure. It is unnecessary, ideologically-driven, and extremely dangerous for women, children and religious liberty.

You can download this document, Oppose Efforts to Further Expand Access to Abortion, in PDF form.