Kristen Day, the executive director of Democrats for Life of America, offers some unsolicited advice in the Daily News to N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo as he seeks to extend some of the most permissive abortion laws in the nation:
In his second State of the State address, in 2012, Gov. Cuomo said that one of the most important things he had learned in his first year as governor is that every interest group has a lobbyist. But it wasn’t until last Wednesday that he heard from the lobbyists for preemies.
That’s when a group of New York physicians went to Albany to tell the governor, who is weighing legislation that would expand abortion rights, that preemies are often viable after just 24 weeks of pregnancy. Therefore, they said, at 24 weeks, if a mother’s health is at risk, doctors can and should deliver her baby instead of aborting it.
For abortion rights activists, the doctors’ message is an inconvenient truth, badly timed. New York already has nearly double the national per capita abortion rate, not to mention the highest teen abortion rate in the nation. Not coincidentally, New York also has fewer abortion restrictions than most every other state.
But that’s not permissive enough for abortion rights activists. They want to change the fact that, under current state law, abortion after 24 weeks is only allowed for women whose lives are in danger. Cuomo has proposed legislative changes that are expected to officially green-light abortions past 24 weeks — potentially through a woman’s due date — if her physical, emotional or psychological health are threatened.
