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).” This bill is expected to be reintroduced in the 2009-2010 Legislative Session.

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 legisaltion 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.  Alarmingly, this bill could be used to eliminate conscience protection in current law by requiring every institution licensed or funded by the state – including religious hospitals, agencies and schools – to support abortion, provide coverage for abortion, or to 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 Prenatal Care Assistance Program which, because they “favor childbirth over abortion,” could be ruled “discriminatory” against the fundamental right to abortion.
• 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.
• The bill seeks to suppress all efforts to enact an “Unborn Victims of Violence Act” by refusing to recognize the unborn child as a second victim of the crime in cases of assault against pregnant women. The bill would specifically label such crimes as causing “serious physical injury to the woman,” refusing even to acknowledge the unborn, viewing him only as an appendage of his mother’s body. Moreover, the crime of “serious physical injury to the woman” would only apply if the child died as a result of the incident -- with no criminal penalty applied if an attacker caused serious but non-fatal injuries to the child.

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.