“Maybe it’s a man’s world, but it is not a man’s world in New York,” Empire State Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a State of the State speech in 2013. “Not anymore.”
Cuomo made that statement as he put the finishing touches on a proposed 10-part Women’s Equality Act, which would include what turned out to be a controversial plank involving abortion laws.
After Cuomo in 2013 unveiled the proposed equality act, considerable controversy arose over the abortion rights part of the package. That plank proposed to codify abortions as part of New York’s health laws,
according to Capital New York. But disagreement arose over exactly what that meant,
reported City & State.
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Opponents of abortion expressed concern in particular that the plank’s approval would mean more abortions. New York legislators subsequently opted in 2015 to detach the abortion plank from the other planks then approve the other planks. Meanwhile, the following statements have been made as part of the discussion over the proposal’s abortion portion.
“Abortion is (already) safe (and) legal in New York State. It’s not going to be changed. And what I see is the expansion of partial-birth abortion, in from the radical left. It’s an extreme measure, and I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary.”
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Dean Skelos, state Senate Republican Conference Leader, suggesting the plank’s approval would make it easier to get an abortion in New York
“The only way [opponents] see they have a chance of justifying their opposition to the Women’s Equality Act is to misconstrue, mischaracterize and outright lie about the law and about what the law would do.”
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Andrea Miller, president of NARAL Pro-Choice New York, to City & State, suggesting the proposal would do nothing more than codify the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide, as part of state law.
“The problem with the word ‘health’ is that it’s been construed to mean virtually anything. It’s not like a grave physical health exception. It’s a broad, drive-a-Mack-Truck-through-it exception. So we see that as an incentive for abortionists to come on into New York and open up their late-term clinics.”
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Kathleen Gallagher, director of pro-life activities at the New York State Catholic Conference, told City & State that matters involved with Cuomo’s proposal had been complicated by the fact that the Roe v. Wade ruling allows for a women’s “life or health” to be taken into account when a physician decides whether to perform a late-term abortion
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