RHPPA

Under current New York state law, the right to an abortion is considered an exception.

Just as in turn-of-the-(last)-century Germany, abortion is regulated under criminal law, a categorization which makes a woman’s choice an illicit matter. A woman’s right to abortion is considered an exception in that case, a grant, a gift, but not a right.

This is an unusual status for a progressive state like New York, especially when similar states such as Connecticut, New Jersey, and yes, even John McCain’s fine state, Arizona, all affirm a woman’s right to choose within state law. This discrepancy can be explained historically. In 1970, three years before Roe v. Wade, the New York legislature passed laws allowing for the legalization of abortion under certain circumstances, a very progressive decision for its time. However advanced this legislation was, with the passage of Roe v. Wade as well as other laws, the legislation has become nothing less than antiquated, and has never been updated. Since 1973, New York has relied on national laws and constitutional amendments to ensure the abortion rights that New Yorkers take for granted.

Given the oxymoronic connations of “New York” and “antiquated,” let’s do a quick run-down of the current New York law:

1. There is no health exception. Thus, even if carrying a fetus to term would result in serious illness for a woman, the inability to have future children, or even the death of the baby once birthed, a woman cannot abort past the 24th week. A health exception in New York exists purely because of federal law. This can often lead to confusion for doctors and hospitals who are trying to determine what they legally have a right to do. If they were only to look at the New York law, they would believe they cannot legally abort past 24 weeks, even if there is a vital health reason to do so.

2. Abortion is considered criminal. There is no definitive statement that women have the right to choose. Instead, abortion is listed as a penal/criminal matter, not a public health matter.

3. Abortion is criminalized after the 24th week, even if the fetus is “non-viable” (i.e. could not survive outside of the mother’s womb), and without health exception. This is unconstitutional under current federal law, which permits abortion until viability.

With the incessant vulnerabilities in our state laws, New York women must instead rely on federal laws, which are now under attack by various states, congressmen, and even our dear Supreme Court. In Spring 2o07, the Supreme Court upheld a state’s right to enact the Federal Abortion Law in Gonzales v. Carhart, which takes away a doctor’s right to perform a “partial-birth abortion,” the political term for dilation and extraction, and includes no health exception. This is the first time such an abortion law has been passed without a health exception. Thus, even if a doctor believes that a fetus should be aborted for the sake of the mother’s health, and, in his or her medical opinion finds extraction and dilation to be the safest and most medically feasible way to perform the abortion, the doctor is constrained by the findings of a powwow of politicians on Capitol Hill from doing so.

The RHPPA would work to ensure that women’s right to choice (and the best medical means) will always be protected in New York, no matter the national situation. The RHPPA would change absolutely nothing about the current practice and policy of abortion, it only codifies what we currently do in state law.

Here’s what RHPPA would do:

1. Protect the right to an abortion in cases where the woman’s life or health is at risk, or in cases where the fetus has a fatal medical condition.

2. Underscore that abortion is not a criminal matter, and treat its regulation as a public health and medical practice.

3. Protects the fundamental right for a person, no matter what age, to choose or refuse contraception.

The most significant facet of this new legislation is that it doesn’t change anything in the current practice or policy of abortion. It is thus scandalous that RHPPA is going to face a tough fight in the New York legislature, especially in the New York Senate, the majority of whose members are anti-choice.

Anti-choice factions are incredibly well-organized and, from what I understand, have been deluging New York State Assembly members with anti-choice claptrap. The legislature has yet to hear the pro-choice voice in full force. I don’t think there’s any question that it is time to change that.