On Jan. 29, 2019, Andrew Cuomo (D), signed New York’s Reproductive Health Act. According to ny.gov, “The Reproductive Health Act amends the public health law, decriminalizing women’s access to abortions and protecting the doctors who perform them.” In a nutshell, the law allows for full term abortions in extreme circumstances, like when the life of the mother is at risk or the fetus is not viable.
Image credit: New York Times
Cue the rapid fire Facebook posts and tweets from anti-choice people who are enraged. Many are male; none fully understand the facts of the matter. I say that because if they did fully understand what New York’s Reproductive Health Act means, they wouldn’t say things like, “Did you know it’s legal to murder a baby the day before it’s due, if the mother wants to?”
Do people actually think a woman would choose to terminate her pregnancy after going through 9 months of visits to the doctor, preparation for motherhood and excitement for the new addition to her family? No one wants to get an abortion at the tail-end of a pregnancy. The only reason it happens is to save a life.
I’m here to break down the facts, because if I see one more opinion piece written by a 60-something-year-old man from Fox News, I’m going to lose my mind.
What was the abortion law in New York before the Reproductive Health Act?
Abortion was legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. Many other states have similar abortion laws. Roe v Wade kind of stuff.
What is different now?
In New York, doctors can legally perform abortions after 24 weeks if they deem the fetus nonviable, or if the life of the mother is in jeopardy.
Image credit: New York Times
No woman gets 39 weeks into a healthy pregnancy and is like, “Eh, nevermind. I don’t want this baby anymore. I want an abortion now. To the clinic I go!” It is not that simple. Ever. And if that were the case, a doctor would not perform the abortion because neither the life of the fetus nor the mother is at risk. It is insensitive and misleading to promote a narrative as such.
Women deserve adequate healthcare. Women deserve autonomy over their own bodies. Women do not deserve shame for making a difficult decision to save their lives.
Sources:
http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/lawssrch.cgi?NVLWO:
https://www.factcheck.org/2019/02/addressing-new-yorks-new-abortion-law/