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Extreme abortion bill unnecessary, dangerous

If ever there was an unnecessary piece of state legislation, the so-called "Reproductive Health Act" is it. The bill was originally introduced by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ban on partial-birth abortion. 

Abortion rights groups cried that the sky was falling and that the right to abortion was at great risk. 

Unfortunately, the Reproductive Health Act has now reared its head again as a program bill (S.5808) from Gov. David Paterson. Proponents suggest it is needed to "protect the right to choose." Nonsense. 

The right to abortion is not at risk in our state - tragically, New York was one of the first states to liberalize its abortion laws, three years prior to its legalization by the U.S. Supreme Court. We have the highest abortion rate of any state in the country. The local yellow pages abound with ads for easily financed and accessible abortions.

Truth be told, the Reproductive Health Act is a priority of only one small special interest group, the abortion providers. It is a sweeping proposal that goes way beyond Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion. Just look at what the bill would do for them:

• It would elevate abortion to a "fundamental right," requiring our government to guarantee it, and forbidding anyone from "discriminating" against it.

• It would expand the pool of practitioners who could perform abortion. The industry needs them; fewer and fewer physicians are willing to perform the procedure.

• It would immunize abortionists from criminal prosecution and even charges of professional misconduct for performing unlawful abortions.

• It would forbid reasonable restrictions on abortion like parental notification for minors' abortions and a ban on the gruesome procedure known as partial-birth abortion. The industry's primary goal is abortion-on-demand anytime during pregnancy for any reason.

• It seeks to force healthcare institutions and social service agencies to participate in abortion, even those who hold religious or moral convictions against it. 

The groups backing this legislation, Planned Parenthood and the Civil Liberties Union, are the very groups who went to court to attack federal conscience protections for healthcare workers and institutions.

In addition to being gratuitous, this bill is also dangerous. It could undermine many beneficial maternity programs in our state, such as the Prenatal Care Assistance Program (PCAP), which helps low-income mothers afford prenatal care and is working to reduce infant mortality. 

Because the bill says the state could not "discriminate" against the fundamental right to abortion, programs like PCAP that favor childbirth over abortion would be put at great risk. Let's not forget that it was Planned Parenthood and the Civil Liberties Union which sued the state over PCAP some years back, determined that a prenatal care program should fund abortion. They were unsuccessful at the time, but they are insistent on their agenda and unyielding in their extremism.

The Reproductive Health Act is a gift to those who profit from abortion advocacy. 

For the rest of us, in today's perilous economy, it is a blatant waste of taxpayers' money to even put this proposal in print. At a time when genuinely pressing issues abound and polling reveals a majority of Americans are pro-life, the Legislature should resist pressure from abortion groups to bring this radical measure to a vote.

It should not happen this year, not next year, not ever.

(Kathleen M. Gallagher is the director of pro-life activities for the NYS Catholic Conference) 

(06/25/09) [[In-content Ad]]

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