Strengthening
Abortion Rights
EDITORIAL, NYTimes on
the Web, April 29, 2007
On the heels of a major Supreme Court
setback for women’s reproductive rights, Gov. Eliot Spitzer has produced a sound
proposal aimed at shoring up those rights in New York State. His timely
initiative, which would update the state’s abortion laws and inoculate them as
much as possible from federal anti-abortion edicts, should be acted on quickly
by lawmakers in Albany and emulated by other states.
New York’s pioneering law legalizing abortion, which Gov. Nelson Rockefeller
signed in 1970, predated Roe v. Wade by three years. The provisions
lifting the old abortion prohibition, and allowing abortion in many cases, are
part of the state’s homicide law, which is not the right place for them.
Mr. Spitzer’s updating would remove abortion from the criminal statutes and
affirmatively make it a matter of professional and medical discretion. His
proposal would also repeal an outmoded statute, previously overturned by the
courts, that criminalizes providing nonprescription contraception to minors.
Beyond that cleanup, the proposed legislation would enshrine in state law Roe’s
core protections, expressly protecting a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy
prior to fetal viability, and making clear that her life and health take
precedence over the rights of the fetus throughout pregnancy.
Joseph Bruno, the Republican majority leader of the State Senate, has indicated
that he has no interest in moving forward with Mr. Spitzer’s proposal. But
with Republican control of the Senate now whittled down to just a few seats,
blocking the abortion rights initiative carries real political risks. It
would not be surprising if Mr. Bruno developed a sudden interest in the bill as
legislative elections drew closer.
New York, like other states, lacks the authority to undo the Congressional ban
on so-called partial birth abortion just upheld by the Supreme Court. That
is regrettable, since the ban endangers women because of its lack of any
exception to protect a woman’s health. The Spitzer bill cannot reverse the
ruling. But it can put important protections in place in the event that
the Supreme Court scales back federal abortion rights further, or even repeals
Roe v. Wade entirely, handing the issue back to the states.
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