New York legislators passed a bill on Tuesday granting women the affirmative right to abortions under the state’s public-health law, a move that symbolically falls on the 46th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. The push comes partly as a reaction to the confirmation last October of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Abortion opponents want Justice Kavanaugh at some point to provide the decisive vote striking down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to early-term abortions. Advocates are advancing legislation in Rhode Island and New Mexico to repeal antiabortion statutes that could take effect if Roe is overturned and said the New York vote would give them momentum. “Courts can no longer be a reliable backstop to anti-reproductive health politicians. And because we don’t expect the attacks to stop, that is why we have to focus on states,” said Leana Wen, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The bill cleared the New York state Assembly and Senate, which Democrats dominate, in largely partisan votes. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed it minutes later. The Legislature also approved bills to require health insurers cover contraceptives and to prevent managers from discriminating against employees based on reproductive health choices. Antiabortion advocates gathered at the state capitol in Albany, N.Y., on Tuesday. Photo: Jimmy Vielkind/The Wall Street Journal “There’s nothing radical about this bill: The decision about whether to have an abortion is deeply personal,” said Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored the Reproductive Health Act. “It should not have taken this long to get to this day.” The Reproductive Health Act has existed in various forms in Albany for more than a decade. New York decriminalized abortion in 1970, three years before the Roe decision, as an exception to homicide if performed in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy or to save the life of the mother. The new law takes the abortion language out of the penal code and creates a right to the procedure under the public-health law. Abortion will be allowed in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy or later, if doctors determine it necessary for the health of the mother. Republicans, who had controlled the New York Senate all but two of the last 50 years, had blocked the bill from floor consideration. Democrats won a solid majority in last year’s elections, adding eight seats. On the Senate floor, some Republicans said the bill would increase late-term abortions; others said it would make it harder to prosecute people who attack pregnant women. The GOP held a news conference with Liv Abreu, who was stabbed while 26 weeks pregnant and lost her baby. She unsuccessfully pushed an amendment to make assaulting a pregnant woman a felony. “A baby inside its mother is not an inanimate object—it’s a life,” said Sen. Daphne Jordan, a Republican from Saratoga County. “Think of what you’re allowing to be tossed away with this vote.” While antiabortion advocates conceded defeat before Tuesday’s vote, the debate continued locally and nationally. Thousands participated in the antiabortion March for Life on Friday in Washington, D.C., and in women’s marches, which drew abortion-rights advocates, nationwide on Saturday. During the Tuesday debate, about two dozen people held signs outside the Senate chamber saying, “Late-term children feel pain.” Some knelt in prayer, holding rosaries. Nearby, abortion-rights advocates chanted, “Women must decide our fate, not the church, not the state.” More people were in the galleries of the Assembly and Senate. The vast majority of abortions performed in New York occur within the first three months of pregnancy, according to National Institute for Reproductive Health President Andrea Miller. She and Ms. Krueger said existing New York laws were in place for pregnant crime victims. Ms. Miller was in Albany Tuesday along with hundreds of abortion rights advocates, including Sarah Weddington, a lawyer in the original Roe case who said she was frightened the Supreme Court decision could be overturned. “When I started working on what became Roe v. Wade, New York was one of the very few states that women could go to for good, legal services,” Ms. Weddington said. “Now to see New York pass a bill to be sure that right is protected is just a dream come true.” Write to Jimmy Vielkind at Jimmy.Vielkind@wsj.com<doc-sep>NEW YORK, January 28, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Governor Andrew Cuomo dug in his heels today, defending signing a law legalizing abortion up until birth while lashing out at Catholic bishops, some of whom increasingly speak of his future excommunication. “The Catholic Church doesn’t believe in a woman’s right to choose...I understand their religious view,” said Cuomo in a WAMC radio interview, adding, “I’m not here to represent a religion.” “I’m here to represent all the people and the constitutional rights and limitations for all the people, not as a Catholic,” asserted the governor. Last week the governor signed into law a bill enshrining a woman’s absolute right to abortion, and then called for a city and state-wide celebration, going so far as to order the spire topping the One World Trade Center and other landmarks to be lit in pink. Earlier today, New York City’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan did not mince words, saying that the abortion bill Cuomo signed into law is “ghoulish, grisly, and gruesome.” “The fact that he’s a Catholic as far as I’m concerned has nothing to do with it,” said Dolan on “Fox & Friends.” “Any thinking human being that would want a baby, allow a baby, to be aborted right up to the moment of birth...anybody who thinks that a baby who survives a gruesome abortion procedure and that a doctor is no longer required to attempt to save that baby’s life – you don’t have to be a Catholic to abhor those types of things,” continued Dolan. “This is just awful,” said the cardinal, “and I don’t know why we would brag about this.” PETITION: One-MILLION-strong against NY's extreme abortion-til-birth law! Sign the petition here. Dolan pointed out that abortion proponents like Cuomo no longer claim they want to keep abortion “safe, legal, and rare.” It’s now “dangerous, enforced, and frequent.” “Do you pop champagne corks for that, drink chablis, and eat brie? Do you light up the Empire State Building?” asked Dolan. Dolan said he receives “wheelbarrows of letters” every day asking for Cuomo to be excommunicated. “We have a governor that brags” about his differences with the Catholic Church’s teaching, said Dolan. “We have a governor that uses his dissent from Church teachings as applause lines,” Dolan said. “We have a governor that takes quotes from Pope Francis out of context to draw an artificial cleavage between bishops of New York and the Holy Father himself.” “He likes this. He likes being the...bad boy when it comes to the Catholic Church.” Addressing Gov. Cuomo, Cardinal Dolan urged him, “this is hideous. Do not brag about making the state of New York the abortion capital of the world.” “This is not an enlightened, progressive posture.” While Cardinal Dolan has said repeatedly that he does not think excommunication is a proper response to Cuomo’s actions, a growing group of his fellow bishops have warmed up to the idea. Dolan has also been cagey about whether the prominent Catholic politician should be denied Holy Communion. “Excommunication is a last resort, and as the Governor continues to distance himself from our [Catholic] communion, it may, unfortunately, result in that,” said Albany’s Bishop Edward Scharfenberger in a January 26 interview on Fox & Friends. “My hope is that since his faith is important to him, he will reconsider the importance of maintaining that communion and not continue to distance himself,” said Scharfenberger. “One can put themselves in the position whereby morally they cannot receive Communion at the altar rail,” he added. “And I think the governor is in that situation right now.” Knoxville, Tennessee Bishop Richard Stika and Tyler, Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland have both publicly said that if Cuomo lived within their jurisdictions they would take action and possibly excommunicate the politician. Strickland recently said that the new law amounts to “infanticide.”<doc-sep>
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo celebrated the passage of an abortion bill that legalizes abortion up until the point of birth in many cases to the applause of progressives, but angered many religious leaders, especially in the Democratic governor's own professed Catholic faith. Now, some Catholic leaders are calling for him to be excommunicated from the church. Cuomo held a public signing of the bill minutes after the "Reproductive Health Act" passed, moving abortion from the state criminal statute to the health code. The new law allows non-doctors to perform the procedure and allows for abortions up to the point of birth if the life or health of the mother is deemed at risk or the baby is not viable. The governor especially angered opponents when he ordered that landmarks in the state, including One World Trade Center, be lit pink in celebration. NEW YORK 'CELEBRATES' LEGALIZING ABORTION UNTIL BIRTH AS CATHOLIC BISHOPS QUESTION CUOMO'S FAITH "It goes way beyond Roe v. Wade in so many ways, so I don't see it as something to celebrate," Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger told "Fox & Friends" Saturday. "The kind of procedures that are now available in New York state, we wouldn't even do to a dog or a cat...It's torture." New York state bishops have been asked to consider ex-communication, which Scharfenberger says is a "last resort" that may come about if Cuomo continues to distance himself from the church. CLICK HERE TO GET THE NEW FOX APP Scharfenberger said Cuomo, who has touted his Roman Catholic faith and the fact that he was a former altar boy in his State of the State address earlier this month, should not be receiving communion because of his flagrant celebration of the pro-abortion bill, a "very radical separation from the Catholic communion" and "light years away" from Pope Francis on abortion. MUSIC LEGEND CHARLIE DANIELS BLASTS NY'S DEM GOVERNOR OVER NEW ABORTION LAW: 'SATAN IS SMILING' Tennesee Bishop Rick Stika of Knoxville tweeted on Thursday that if it were up to him, he’d excommunicate Cuomo. “This vote is so hideous and vile that it warrants the act,” Stika wrote. Other Catholics, including bishops, agreed on social media, but it is unlikely to happen. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, told "Fox & Friends" Monday morning it would just be "ammunition" for pro-abortion opponents who would dismiss the issue as a Catholic one and not a human rights issue. He said he gets "wheelbarrows" full of letters a day asking about it. "He's not going to be moved by this, so what's the use?" Dolan remarked. OHIO'S NEW GOVERNOR SAYS HE'LL SIGN 'HEARTBEAT' ABORTION BILL THAT KASICH VETOED The New York archbishop did note that excommunication for anyone who performed abortions or supported the practice was the norm until the last 50 years or so when the church focused more on mercy. Cuomo’s father, the late three-term governor Mario Cuomo, was threatened with excommunication for his views on abortion.