New York Abortion Law

By now, most folks have probably heard of the state of New York revamping their abortion law, which allow the possibility of an abortion up to the time of a child’s birth. One interesting spin on the new regulation tells us Why The Patriarchy Lies About Reproductive Health: And No, New York Is Not Killing Babies.

I’m not sure who this “patriarchy” is and the author, Erin Wathen, doesn’t bother to define how she is using the term. She probably intends something like this definition at Dictionary.com: “a social system in which power is held by men, through cultural norms and customs that favor men and withhold opportunity from women.” If so, the author means that men oppose abortion to continue norms that favor or benefit themselves while keeping women down. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (a man, by the way), said, “…legislators, most of whom are men, by the way, shouldn’t be telling a woman what she should and shouldn’t be doing with her body.” Of course, all this geared talk obscures several complicated factors. For example:

• Women oppose abortion too.
• Women (female babies) are aborted too.
• Most abortionists are men.
• Abortion benefits “the patriarchy” who wish to impregnate without responsibility.
• Legislators make many laws that tell women (and men) what they can and can’t do with their bodies.

Wathen also tells us that New York is not killing babies. On the contrary, the added Article 25-A, Reproductive Health Act enshrines abortion as a fundamental right in the New York Constitution! “Late-term” abortion – up to the point of birth – is allowed if a health care practitioner (not necessarily a doctor)[i] decides the baby could not survive outside the womb (absence of fetal viability) or “the abortion is necessary to protect the patient’s life or health.” Further consequences include that an unborn child is not a person and can never be the victim of a homicide, as well as removing existing protections for babies born alive after an abortion.[ii]

From the act, as posted as NYSenate.Gov (ALL CAPS are theirs)

• EVERY INDIVIDUAL WHO BECOMES PREGNANT HAS THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO CHOOSE TO CARRY THE PREGNANCY TO TERM, TO GIVE BIRTH TO A CHILD, OR TO HAVE AN ABORTION, PURSUANT TO THIS ARTICLE.
• A HEALTH CARE PRACTITIONER LICENSED, CERTIFIED, OR AUTHORIZED UNDER TITLE EIGHT OF THE EDUCATION LAW, ACTING WITHIN HIS OR HER LAWFUL SCOPE OF PRACTICE, MAY PERFORM AN ABORTION WHEN, ACCORDING TO THE PRACTITIONER’S REASONABLE AND GOOD FAITH PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT BASED ON THE FACTS OF THE PATIENT’S CASE: THE PATIENT IS WITHIN TWENTY-FOUR WEEKS FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF PREGNANCY, OR THERE IS AN ABSENCE OF FETAL VIABILITY, OR THE ABORTION IS NECESSARY TO PROTECT THE PATIENT’S LIFE OR HEALTH.
• “Person, when referring to the victim of a homicide, means a human being who has been born and is alive.
• Section 4164 of the public health law is REPEALED.

New York’s Governor, Andrew Cuomo, signed this into law Tuesday, January 29.

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[i] I’m not certain about New York definitions, but under federal regulations a “health care practitioner” can even be a clinical social worker.

[ii] Curiously, links to a The New York State Senate page referencing that this law “removes protections for babies born alive after an abortion” have been moved or removed.