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In a few weeks, more than 1,000 Catholics from throughout New York State will journey to Albany for the annual "Catholics at the Capitol" lobbying day.

Joined by the bishops of the state, we'll be speaking with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and members of the State Senate and Assembly about some of our priority issues we hope will be addressed during the 2013 legislative session.

There are nearly 100 public policy issues on which the New York State Catholic Conference (which advocates for the state's bishops on issues of concern) takes positions each year. However, at our Catholics at the Capitol day, we will focus our attention on five issues, either because they are on the front burner of the legislative agenda or because we would like them to become such.

Advocacy issues
We will be advocating on:

•  the need for affordable housing for low-income and vulnerable populations;

•  humane treatment for the incarcerated;

•  assurance of quality health care through the Medicaid redesign process;

•  an education investment tax credit for those contributing to the support of Catholic school education; and

•  opposition to any abortion expansion plan as part of a state "women's equality agenda."

It is important to note that our Catholic Conference is supportive in principle (without seeing the actual legislation) of the other issues included in Gov. Cuomo's women's agenda: helping victims of domestic violence and human trafficking; having zero tolerance for sexual harassment in the workplace; an equal pay law; and ending pregnancy discrimination. Indeed, we have been advocating for these positions over the years through our Catholic Charities agencies, religious communities and our public policy network.

What N.Y. needs
The "Reproductive Health Act" was first proposed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer six years ago and has failed to find traction as a stand-alone entity. It is presently being sponsored by Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins. The Governor's bill has not been submitted as of this writing.

The Governor and his staff insist that his abortion bill will simply "codify federal law." But federal law concedes to the states the right to monitor and place limits and common-sense regulations on abortion, including protections for viable infants in the womb. The majority of states have enacted such safeguards as parental notification, waiting periods and bans on the particularly horrific practice of partial birth abortion. Also, unlike New York, the majority of states do not provide unlimited taxpayer funding for abortion. Why should New Yorkers be denied such prudent and life-affirming protections?

As Kate Pickert points out in a cover story in Time magazine's Jan. 14 issue, "In this age of prenatal ultrasounds and sophisticated neonatology, a sizeable majority of Americans support abortion restrictions like waiting periods and parental consent laws."

And, as Debbie Egan-Chin asks in the New York Daily News, "Whatever happened to the important goal - advanced by President Bill Clinton and embraced by many on the pro-choice side - of seeking to make abortion 'safe, legal and rare?'"

Ms. Egan-Chin opines, "Safe and legal, abortion is in New York. Rare it is not. Four out of every 10 pregnancies in this state end by an invasive medical procedure that people of all faiths and political persuasions can agree ought to be a last resort. In some poorer neighborhoods of New York City, the rate appallingly rises above 60 percent."

Cardinal vs. Cuomo
Ms. Egan-Chin's comments arose in support of a letter issued by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York. On Jan. 9, the cardinal wrote to Gov. Cuomo, supporting a number of the issues the Governor put forward that day in his State of the State address. However, regarding the Reproductive Health Act, the cardinal noted: "We obviously disagree on the question of the legality of abortion, but surely we are in equally strong agreement that the abortion rate in New York is tragically high. There was a time when abortion supporters claimed they wanted to make abortion 'safe, legal, and rare.' Yet this measure [the Reproductive Health Act] is specifically designed to expand access to abortion, and therefore to increase the abortion rate. I am hard-pressed to think of a piece of legislation that is less needed or more harmful than this one."

On a more positive note, the cardinal assured the Governor, "My brother bishops and I would very much like to work closely with you to reduce New York's scandalous abortion rate and to provide an environment for all women and girls in which they are not made to feel as though their only alternative is to abort, something which goes against all human instinct, and which all too often leads to lifelong feelings of regret, guilt and pain for them, and for the baby's father as well."

Too many abortions
It has now been 40 years since the Supreme Court made abortion legal in our nation. Since the 1973 ruling in Roe vs. Wade, there have been more than 50 million abortions in the United States. That number is staggering!

Dr. John Bruchalski, the founder of the Tepeyac Family Center in Virginia, which handles up to 25,000 patient visits a year, many of whom are poor and uninsured women, has come to an abrupt about-face after having performed abortions earlier in his career.

In a column by Felix Carroll in January in the Times Union newspaper, Dr. Bruchalski explains why he stopped being an abortionist: "It's brutal, visceral. It's difficult to watch and it's difficult to do. You're eviscerating the fetus, and I felt it was eviscerating my humanity."

Dr. Bruchalski now delivers lectures to medical students. Last fall, at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix, he asked his audience, "Why is it that the number of Americans who identify themselves as pro-choice has been steadily declining? They're now the minority."

The Times Union article cites a Gallup poll that reported in May that only 41 percent of Americans now identify themselves as "pro-choice." To Dr. Bruchalski, "The more we know about fetal development, the harder it becomes to dismiss the humanity of the fetus. Week three following conception: The fetus has a heart that beats with its own blood. Week five: eyes, legs, and hands. Those are facts, not religious beliefs.

"So what's the definition of personhood? Is it still subjective?" he asked, adding: "Why is it that while 97 percent of family doctors report having encountered patients seeking abortion, only five to 15 percent will perform abortions? Why such a stigma?"

Answering his own question, he said, "We are aborting innocents."

Anti-life trend
I believe Bishop William Murphy of the Rockville Centre (Long Island) Diocese is on target when he states in an interview with the National Catholic Register that "the acceptance of abortion in our society is one of the major factors in the overall coarsening of our contemporary American scene. There is an interconnectedness between abortion and the many other factors in society that are anti-human life, from gun violence to exploitation of women to the trivialization of sexuality."

No one denies that abortion is a heart-wrenching and difficult problem because, as Notre Dame law professor Cathleen Kaveny observed in a Commonweal magazine column, "The most vulnerable class of human beings - the unborn - are totally dependent on human beings who are themselves very vulnerable. Studies show that unmarried women, very young women and women without financial resources are more likely to seek an abortion as an answer to an unwanted pregnancy."

That is why Prof. Kaveny lauds the study on abortion policy authored by Dr. Mary Ann Glendon of Harvard University, titled, "Abortion and Divorce in Western Law." Dr. Glendon posits that "what is important is the totality of abortion regulations - that is, all criminal, public health and social welfare laws...as a whole, work for the continuation of the pregnancy."

Wrong direction
Tragically, any expansion of abortion in New York State, whether it is the Reproductive Health Act or some other bill, will move us in exactly the opposite direction from what Dr. Glendon suggests and what the majority of New Yorkers want.

A recent statewide poll conducted by McLaughlin and Associates found that, while 55 percent identified themselves as "pro-choice," 66 percent said there is sufficient access to abortion in New York - and, when informed of the actual number of abortions recorded each year (111,000), the number of people who agreed that there is sufficient access to abortion rose to 79 percent, with only seven percent of respondents disagreeing.

Hence, I urge readers to contact their state senators, assembly persons and the Governor to urge them to reject this unwise and totally unnecessary expansion of abortion, which will only result in the deaths of thousands more unborn children in our Empire State.

Urge your elected representatives to value childbirth over abortion and to help pregnant women with real "choices" that empower them to bear their children and raise their families.

(For information, visit www.nyscatholic.org.)[[In-content Ad]]

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