This article was passed on to me by Kathleen Gallagher of the NYS Catholic Conference. Not surprisingly it mentions "anti aboriton advocates" while never referring to the women themselves who have experienced abortion being a source of information. It is too bad no concern is shown for those women coerced into abortion who wanted their unborn child, nor does it address abortions adverse impact on womens lives. The article ends with "let the wars begin". I say "let the truth be told"
WHAT THE CHANGE WOULD DO
The Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act, proposed by Governor Eliot Spitzer, would establish and recognize
reproductive rights and privacy. The bill would guarantee the right to abortion;
it would also guarantee rights with respect to contraception including, for
example, the purchase of birth control or "morning after" pills. It would amend
the public health law, the education law, the penal law and criminal procedure
law, and certain other statutes, all in relation to abortion. Specifically the
bill contains a statement of a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy before the
fetus is medically determined to be viable or at any time necessary to preserve
the woman’s life or health. According to lawyers who have assisted the Spitzer’s
office in drafting the legislation, perhaps most significantly, it would
recognize that the issue of abortion is medical, rather than legal or political.
Currently, New York does not have any provision for abortion
after viability to protect a woman’s health. Also, the procedure remains
criminal after 24 weeks even if the fetus is not viable — "even if the fetus is
dead," according to Dr. Maureen Paul, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of New York City.
The law bans all abortion after 24 weeks except when necessary to preserve a
woman’s life, although Paul says, "A threat to health is a threat to life."
Under the proposed changes, these statutes would be repealed
and the bill would allow a woman to end a pregnancy until viability or at any
time necessary to protect her life or health.
ADDRESSING FEDERAL CHANGES
New York’s existing law was never challenged, but until this
year federal court decisions had determined that laws restricting abortion after
24 weeks are unenforceable when the procedure is needed to protect a woman’s
health. Then earlier this year in their second Gonzales v Carhart ruling
on late-term abortions, the Supreme Court decided that the "state’s interest in
promoting respect for human life in all stages of pregnancy could outweigh a
woman’s interest in protecting her own health." That decision means that New
York laws would no longer be adequate to insure that women who needed them would
be able to obtain abortions in later stages of pregnancy.
By addressing that issue directly, advocates say, New York
would make a major commitment to protecting the rights intended by a majority of
the sitting justices’ predecessors three and a half decades ago. If the current
state bill is enacted into law, it will reflect the public policy of New York by
declaring that every individual has a fundamental right of privacy with respect
to personal reproductive decisions and the right to refuse or choose
contraception. It would make clear that in New York State every female can
determine the right to bear a child and terminate a pregnancy prior to
viability, or whenever it is necessary to protect her life or health.
In the wake of recent court rulings, and anticipating
decisions in the future, abortion rights advocates are increasingly turning
their attention to the state level. In this state, the proposed legislation
"will ensure that New York remains a beacon for choice in the face of broad
federal attacks on reproductive health and women’s rights," said Donna
Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which
participated in the drafting of the bill. "The Reproductive Health and Privacy
Protection Act would be just that. It would make reproductive rights a matter of
health, not law and politics," she said.
Unless the state legislature returns for a special session
later this year, the bill is unlikely to win passage in 2007. But supporters say
they will press for the legislation. NARAL Pro-Choice New York,
for example, has said it will target key state senators who have opposed the
bill “until the bill is passed.
For their part, antiabortion advocates are working to defeat
the measure. In a “memorandum of
opposition,” the New York State Catholic Conference
listed objections to specific provisions of the bill, including its guarantee of
privacy rights and its removal of New York abortion laws from the criminal code.
Calling the bill “uncompromising in its terms and extremely sweeping in scope,”
the statement said the measure “goes against the increasingly pro-life sentiment
in this country.”
Let the wars begin.
EmilyJane Goodman is a New York State Supreme Court Justice
Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion 
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