FPA in the News: 2007
The New York Times
Spitzer Seeks Overhaul of New York’s Abortion Law
By Danny Hakim
4.25.07
Gov. Eliot Spitzer plans to introduce legislation to overhaul the state’s pioneering but antiquated abortion law, shoring up a woman’s right to an abortion in New York State.
The move comes in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision last week to uphold the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, as several other states are moving to tighten restrictions on abortion. It harks back to New York’s early role in legalizing abortion — and could take on much broader significance if the Supreme Court were ever to return the matter to the discretion of the states. But the legislation is far from a certainty to win the support of the Republican-led State Senate.
New York’s abortion law, signed by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, a Republican, in 1970, predated the Roe v. Wade decision by three years and made New York the second state after Hawaii to broadly legalize the procedure — and the first to allow abortions for out-of-state residents. More than half of the women having abortions came from out of state in the first two years.
But the law is now considered out of date by abortion rights advocates.
Mr. Spitzer’s bill, the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act, would update the current law, which — for example — does not include a provision allowing for abortions late in pregnancies to protect a woman’s health. State laws on the books also consider abortion a homicide, with broad exceptions allowed.
Mr. Spitzer’s proposal would remove abortion from criminal statutes and make it a matter of professional and medical discretion. It would also repeal an old statute “that criminalizes, among other things, providing nonprescription contraception to minors.”
“Even if the Supreme Court does not understand the law, we do,” said Governor Spitzer, appearing briefly today at a Manhattan luncheon hosted by Naral Pro-Choice New York. “New York State will continue to be a beacon of civil rights and protection of women’s rights.”
In the wake of the shooting death of a state trooper in upstate New York this morning, the governor cut short his appearance and his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, ended up delivering a planned speech in his place, saying the “legislation would enshrine the protections of Roe v. Wade into New York State law.”
The matter is clearly an important one for the governor. His mother, Anne, is a board member of a foundation affiliated with Naral and received a lifetime achievement award at the luncheon.
Abortion rights advocates hailed the proposed legislation as a critical step in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, but it is also one that largely will serve as a hedge against future decisions of a Supreme Court that has clearly signaled its willingness to uphold stricter regulation of abortion. The state bill would not change current abortion practices, nor would it have any effect on the procedure covered by the federal ban, which is known medically as “intact dilation and extraction.”
“New York’s laws have to be impeccable,” said JoAnn Smith, president and chief executive of Family Planning Advocates of New York State. “The Supreme Court said last week that a women’s health doesn’t matter, and with very carefully crafted legislation today, Governor Spitzer said it does.”
But Lori Kehoe, a spokesperson for the New York State Right to Life Committee, called the governor “a bully with an insatiable appetite and tunnel vision to accomplish his fierce agenda.”
“We can only hope the Senate will get back their courage and begin to stand up for the children with as much fervor and devotion as Governor Spitzer has shown for making sure they can be destroyed,” she added.
In Albany, such legislation is far from a certainty to pass.
Neither the Democratic-led Assembly nor the Republican-led Senate was familiar with the proposal, though it could be expected to be received warmly in the Assembly and much less so in the Senate.
“The governor’s top issues for the rest of the session are overturning an abortion decision that has not been made, delivering same-sex marriage and campaign finance reform,” said John McArdle, a spokesman for Senate majority leader Joseph L. Bruno. “Our priorities continue to be dealing with the state’s economy, jobs, reducing taxes and making sure cops don’t get killed when they’re on the job.”
Kate Hammer contributed reporting from Manhattan.