Penna Dexter

New York recently passed legislation that makes it easier for women to get third trimester abortions. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the new law and celebrated by ordering that the 408-foot spire on the One World Trade Center building, two bridges, and the Alfred E. Smith Building in Albany be lit up in pink. New York's abortion laws were already lax. In fact, Life News called New York "one of the most pro-abortion states in America." The state's old law allowed third-trimester abortion if the mother's health was "endangered." The new Reproductive Health Act's looser standard allows abortion if the mother's health "can be harmed." One big concern is that the new law allows licensed nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and midwives to perform abortions up to 24 weeks gestation and evenlater if there is "an absence of fetal viability." About 40 states have laws on the books that prohibit anybody but an MD from performing an abortion. Abortion rights activists are challenging those laws in at least 9 states. Most of the laws being challenged are decades old. These attempts to overturn them are fairly recent and probably result from some states' new common-sense restrictions on abortion facilities and abortion doctors that at least make the procedure safer for women. Plus, the number of abortion providers is shrinking across the country especially in rural areas where many of the lawsuits have been filed. The lawsuits argue that allowing non-MD's to perform abortions will increase access. They also cite a 2013 study published in the American Journal of Public Health that shows only slightly fewer complications in abortions done by doctors. Plaintiffs in those nine states seek to allow non-MD's to provide only early-term abortions. New York's new law allows abortion on a completely developed baby to be done by a person who is not a doctor. The Catholic Bishops stated: "this is not progress." It's not: It's sub par health care.