TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 04, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New York’s recently passed Reproductive Health Act states: “’Person,’ when referring to the victim of a homicide, means a human being who has been born and is alive” notes the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).
Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered that One World Trade Center in New York City and several other New York state landmarks be lit in pink to celebrate the passage of the bill, a long-term goal of abortion-rights advocates. The law removes anything in New York law that could have been interpreted to limit abortion or to extend any protection to a child before birth, as long as the abortion is deemed necessary to “protect the patient’s [mother’s] life or health,” according to an analysis by Sam Sawyer, S.J.
Abortion-rights defenders are worried that Roe v. Wade might be overturned, but this would not affect New York State, which legalized abortion 3 years earlier, in 1970, notes AAPS executive director Jane Orient, M.D. “Women came there from out of state when I was a medical student,” she said. “Saline abortions, now discredited because of danger to the mother and an occasional live birth, were used in the second trimester.”
The law repeals requirements to care for a child born alive during an abortion procedure and to keep medical records of this care, Dr. Orient observes.
“New York already has a high abortion rate,” she states. “One in three pregnancies in New York ends in abortion, and there is a great disparity by race. Black women are five times as likely as white women to have an abortion.”
“Although abortions might not increase, what will happen when personhood is defined by the legislature?” she asked. “Blacks and Jews were once nonpersons; they were enslaved or slaughtered.”
“Denying personhood facilitates eugenics, of which Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was a staunch supporter,” Dr. Orient warned.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in all specialties, founded in 1943. Its motto is “omnia pro aegroto,” or “all for the patient.”
Contact: Jane M. Orient, M.D., (520) 323-3110, janeorientmd@gmail.com