Cuomo to introduce legislation strengthening abortion care

Cuomo to introduce legislation strengthening abortion care
The New York governor is making good on a promise to lift restrictions that have been a barrier to women's access
By Katie Mcdonough


This may be the first time in a while that you’re reading about a politician trying to strengthen legal abortion in the United States.

According to a report in the New York Times, Governor Andrew Cuomo is “putting the finishing touches” on legislation that would guarantee women in New York the right to late-term abortions when the fetus is non-viable or the mother’s health is at risk.

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In addition to clarifying current law, Cuomo’s Reproductive Health Act would make explicit that, in addition to physicians, licensed health care practitioners can also perform abortions. The change would also regulate abortion through New York’s public health, rather than its penal, laws.

For women’s and reproductive rights advocates, this is a welcome change. Supporters say that the governor’s law is a muscular stand against a national trend of trying to deny women’s legal access to abortion care through regulatory tactics that shutter clinics and restrict when and how women can have the procedure.

“It’s an extraordinary moment in terms of the degree to which there is government interference in a woman’s ability to make these basic health care decisions,” Andrea Miller, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice New York told the Times. “For New York to be able to send a signal, a hopeful sign, a sense of the turning of the tide, we think is really important.”

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http://www.salon.com/2013/02/17/cuomo_to_introduce_legislation_strengthening_abortion_care/