Abortion Laws Should Be Properly Regulated

One of the most controversial pieces of legislation ever passed in the State of New York made national headlines this week. Through the passage of what is called the Reproductive Health Act or RHA for short, New York legislators passed and the governor signed a bill that strips away the most vital of protections for unborn children. Up until the passage of the act, abortions were legal until the 24th week. Why? Because that is when an unborn child is normally able to survive outside the womb. As written and passed, women in New York may now get an abortion seconds before delivery would occur. That means that a woman may carry a pregnancy to term, or forty weeks, and decide to abort her child prior to their birth. Thanks to this new law, abused animals in the state of New York now have much stronger legal protections than an unborn child does.

One of the key elements of the RHA is the decriminalization of the abortion of a child beyond 24 weeks of gestation. New York currently has one of the highest rates of abortion. One in three pregnancies there ends with an abortion. Perhaps it would be more prudent to look at why these pregnancies end in abortion and try to reach a consensus on how to fix issues like the lack of affordable housing, the scarcity of child care and the high cost of living in the state of New York. The possibility of saving these innocent children whose lives are snuffed out too soon and whose tiny bodies end up in a medical waste collection bag leaves much work for pro-life advocates to do.

This legislation will not only increase the number of additional abortions that will take place but will also let those currently awaiting trial with felony abortion charges lodged against them off the hook. Since it is now legal to terminate a pregnancy up until birth you cannot charge a person for injury to a fetus. This means that babies in the womb who are victims of domestic abuse or die as the result of their mother being killed or injured in a drunk driving accident will no longer face criminal prosecution for ending a pregnancy. “Prior to these changes, the definition of homicide included causing the death of a person (defined as “a human being who has been born and is alive”) or of an unborn child if the woman has been pregnant for more than 24 weeks.”

One of the most disturbing aspects of the RHA is that it does not provide adequate verbiage regarding what constitutes danger to the life of the mother. This may be taken to mean a physical or mental risk. Well, what do we deem as a mental risk? There is no objective medical standard provided within the RHA. “Pro-life critics of the law are pointing out that the exception for health, which is not restricted to a physical definition and can be interpreted to cover psychological and emotional health, subject only to the medical judgment of the abortion provider, is broad enough to cover basically any late term abortion.” “The new law does not contain any meaningful restriction that is likely to ever prevent an abortion.”

Another troubling piece of the new law allows non-physicians to perform abortions up to 40 weeks gestation. While they must be certified under New York State law, allowing an individual who is not an actual doctor to determine the overall physical and mental condition of women seeking late term abortions sets a scary precedent. Late term abortions often come with a higher risk to the mother and should only be performed in a hospital by a certified OB. This only highlights how little thought was put into this piece by legislators.

In the past, it was very rare for an infant to be born alive after a botched abortion. Since viability is typically reached at week 24 and abortions were not allowed beyond the 23rd week aborted babies were not born alive. However, the RHA makes no provision for what happens when a baby that is aborted past viability is born alive. It is now not illegal for a live baby to be murdered on the abortion table in the state of New York. “It decriminalizes all state abortion laws, and it removes all rights and protections from the unborn by defining a “person” as “a human being who has been born and is alive.” Even this definition, however, is revoked for the child who is accidentally born alive.”

While New Yorkers may favor legalizing the right to murder babies who are mature enough to live outside the womb and feel real pain, the majority of Americans are not in favor of the RHA. “A full 60 percent of Americans think abortion should only be allowed in the first trimester. And only 13 percent support abortion in the third trimester, when the baby is viable. It is not hard to imagine what the results of a poll that included a question asking if infants should be denied resuscitation if that was the mother’s desire. Clearly the consensus of the American public is that the RHA is very flawed.

Finally, I have a hard time wrapping my mind around why a woman would select an abortion beyond 24 weeks rather than a delivery when the baby reaches the stage of viability outside the womb. Late term abortions are dangerous for the mother. The normal delivery of a late term baby is less so. Should the mother and physician decide to abort this life due to the mother’s diminished mental capacity why not allow the child to be placed in the arms of loving and capable set of foster or adoptive parents instead of being killed?

Until the silent majority mobilize and make their voices known, every baby in New York is at risk of being murdered up to and including their time of birth. Progressive legislators jumped up and down, high-fiving each other and the “Catholic” governor of New York ordered the One World Trade Center to be lit up in pink after the Democratically controlled house and senate passed this shocking piece of legislation. How ironic that a structure built to mourn the death of thousands of Americans is now being used to celebrate the murder of even more.

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