Governor Kathy Hochul discusses legislation passed in Legislative extraordinary session

The State Legislature has passed a resolution to enshrine equal rights into the New York State Constitution, which will solidify the right to abortion access in New York State.

The resolution was brought forward by Governor Kathy Hochul as part of an extraordinary session of the legislature that she called to deal with decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court dealing with gun laws and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

If enacted, the amendment will add ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy to existing protections that currently cover discrimination based on race, color, religion or creed.

State Senator George Borrello was critical of the resolution, saying abortion rights are already codified in state law under the Reproductive Health Act passed in 2019, and that “This will potentially force Catholic hospitals and other religiously affiliated organizations to provide abortions and other services that violate their beliefs.”

The resolution will need to pass again in the next legislative session before going to the voters for ultimate approval.

Governor Kathy Hochul delivers remarks at NYS Bipartisan Pro-Choice Legislative Caucus press event in Albany (May 3, 2022)

Governor Kathy Hochul is working to develop potential legislation and executive actions to strengthen New York’s abortion laws codified into state law and improve protections for out-of-staters and abortion providers.

The governor reiterated in the state Capitol on Tuesday she is “horrified” by the U.S. Supreme Court‘s leaked draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, as reported by Politico on Monday night, “And as a woman, this is personal. This is something that we have fought against for my entire life. In fact, this is a battle my mother’s generation, it’s a battle from my generation, my daughter’s generation, and it seems like even my three-day old grandchild Sophia’s generation will have to be fighting this same fight. Something that we had thought we had put to bed a long time ago.”

Hochul has repeatedly said the state will be a safe haven for any person seeking reproductive health care, including an abortion, as several states move to impose sweeping abortion bans if the U.S. Supreme Court decides to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer.

She said under her direction, the “Department of Health is working closely with experts and advocates to issue regulations to ensure that telemedicine abortion is available here, to offer clear guidance to providers, and provide information to patients about their right to abortion.”

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said she would not rule out a constitutional amendment.

State Senator Liz Krueger sponsored three pieces of legislation to protect abortion providers in New York and women seeking treatment from other states. She added that, “Everything has to be on the table.”

New York passed reproductive rights laws in 1970 — three years before Roe v. Wade — under a Republican majority in the Senate, and with 12 Republicans joining the Democratic majority to vote for the legislation at the time.

State Republican leaders have remained publicly silent about the leaked draft decision.

U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican, is pro-life and supported a bill in Congress to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks and joined his Republican colleagues in 2020 in calling to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Hochul presided over the state Senate in 2019 to pass the Reproductive Health Act, which codified protections to legal abortion by any licensed health care practitioner in state law, and permits abortions after 24 weeks if the woman’s life or health is at risk or the fetus is not viable.

The State Capitol, Albany NY.

ALBANY – A new poll from the Siena College Research Institute shows the favorability for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, along with other state officials, has seen a significant decline in recent days.

The poll – which was conducted last week – shows that Cuomo’s favorability with residents is down to 43 percent from 51 percent the month before. That’s its lowest number since the Democrat took office eight years ago.

The poll also showed ratings for U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand as well as the state Senate and Assembly also dropped.

Despite the popularity drop, the poll reported that most New Yorkers are actually in favor of recent laws passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Cuomo. New Yorkers say the Child Victims Act will be good for New York. By wide margins, they say the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), the Dream Act and recently passed election reform and gun control laws will be good for the state. Respondents said the same about the polarizing Reproductive Health Act by a narrower 47 to 32 percent margin.

On the question of whether President Donald Trump should not declare a national emergency to fund a border wall, 83 percent of Democrats said no, in league with 70 percent of independents and even 45 percent of Republicans.

The poll was conducted Feb. 4-7 by calls conducted in English to 778 New York registered voters.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo

ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo defended New York’s new abortion law Wednesday after it was criticized by President Donald Trump during the State of the Union address, saying Trump and his conservative allies are lying about the law as part of a broader assault on abortion rights.

In an op-ed published in The New York Times on Wednesday, the Democrat also pushed back on Trump’s call for a ban on late-term abortion, saying he wants to roll back decades-old court rulings protecting access to the procedure.

“It’s worth recalling that in 1999, long before he ran for president, Mr. Trump described himself as “very pro-choice.” Today he claims to be anti-choice, and he shamelessly courts the religious right to win votes,” Cuomo wrote, adding, “Too much of today’s political discourse is extreme. But emotions run especially high when politics and religion intersect — as in the debate about a woman’s right to choose. As a Roman Catholic, I am intimately familiar with the strongly held views of the church. Still, I do not believe that religious values should drive political positions.”

Enacted last month, the Reproductive Health Act codifies rights laid out in Roe v. Wade and other abortion rulings. It states that a woman may abort a viable fetus after 24 weeks of pregnancy only if her life or health is at risk, restrictions on late-term abortions based on Supreme Court decisions including Roe v. Wade and subsequent rulings.

Trump did not mention those stipulations when he criticized the law in Tuesday night’s speech before Congress. Instead, the president said he wanted Congress to pass a ban on late-term abortion of fetuses that “can feel pain in the mother’s womb” – an unlikely proposition given Democratic control of the U.S. House.

Polls show a majority of Americans back the Roe decision, but public support for late-term abortion is much more complicated. According to a 2018 Gallup poll, 81 percent of Americans believe abortion should be illegal in the last three months of pregnancy. But the same poll found that 75 percent of respondents said third-trimester abortions should be legal when a woman’s life is endangered.

Studies show Nearly 90 percent of all abortions in the U.S. are performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Meanwhile, Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) – who represents Chautauqua County in Washington, is taking the president’s side on the issue.

Reed released a statement saying the extremists in Albany and Governor Cuomo would like residents to think the new abortion laws are about solidifying the Roe vs Wade decision in New York State, but Reed said the ability to kill a baby at birth for reasons not even determined by a licensed doctor is extreme, and does not reflect the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on abortion.

President Donald Trump on Feb. 5 during his 2019 State of the Union address before Congress (Image Courtesy of White House)

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump delivered the 2019 State of the Union to Congress on Tuesday.

While his message focused mostly on the economy, his border wall, and foreign policy issues in both the Middle East and South America, Trump also took a few moments to criticize New York State for it’s recent abortion legislation – The Reproductive Health Act – that was passed in Albany and signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Supporters of the bill, including the governor, said the new legislation provides a series of measures codifying abortion protections and expanding reproductive health rights for women and their health care providers.

But as part of his statement, Trump focused in on the most controversial component of the legislation – the late term abortion clause – and omitted the details that the law permits abortions after 24 weeks only if a health care professional determines the health or life of the mother is at risk, or the fetus is not viable.

“There could be no greater contrast to the beautiful image of a mother holding her infant child than the chilling displays are nation saw in recent days. Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments from birth,” Trump said, adding, “To defend the dignity of every person, I am asking congress to pass legislation to prohibit the late term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb.”

In response to the comment, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who’s also a 2020 presidential hopeful, released a statement criticizing the president’s general comments in the State of the Union while also specifically addressing his comments regarding late-term abortion.

“President Trump has had years to bring this country together, but instead he has chosen to divide the country across every single line he can imagine,” Gillibrand said. “If President Trump wants to convince the country that he actually cares about bringing us together, then he can start by no longer using government workers as political pawns, reuniting the families that his Administration ripped apart at the border, and stopping with political wedge issues like telling women they can’t make their own health decisions in consultation with their doctor.”

Governor Cuomo also released a statement criticizing Trump for his comments on the new state law.

“President Trump proposed rolling back the protections provided by Roe v. Wade — the law of our nation for 46 years affirmed and reaffirmed by numerous Supreme Courts. Never. New York has a message to those who spread lies and fear to control women’s reproductive health decisions: Not going to happen. Not now, not ever,” Cuomo stated. 

The vote, made possible by the new Democratic majority in the Senate, came 46 years to the day after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

The Reproductive Health Act does three things. First, it strips abortion from the state’s criminal code and places it entirely within the realm of public health law. Second, it expands who can perform the procedure from beyond just physicians to any licensed, certified or authorized health care practitioner for whom abortion is within their scope of practice.  Finally, it legalizes abortion after 24 weeks in cases where it would protect a woman’s health or where a fetus is not viable. State law previously only allowed abortions after 24 weeks if the woman’s life was in jeopardy.

Democratic lawmakers say the updates to the state abortion laws were needed to be changed especially in light of recent changes on the nation’s highest court.

Cuomo said he believes that the federal protections of Roe v. Wade are at risk of being overturned with a Supreme Court that, under President Trump, has shifted to a more conservative viewpoint.

Senate Majority Leader Andrew Stewart-Cousins, who carried a bill on the legislation in 2007, echoed Cuomo’s concern that the federal protections are at risk of being overturned and that New York needed to act.

According to an article in the Albany Times-Union, the coalition, which claims more than 500 member groups and companies, was in the state capitol on Monday to rally support for Governor Andrew Cuomo’s ten-point Women’s Equality Act, which he first unveiled during his State of the State speech in January.

The coalition also held a news conference on Monday in an effort to broaden the current political debate over the ten-point plan and its most controversial element: a Cuomo-customized version of the Reproductive Health Act. Supporters describe it as nothing more than an effort to modernize and codify abortion laws, but opponents, meanwhile, condemn it as an “abortion expansion act.”

After the news conference, the coalition representatives joined Cuomo for a brief meeting followed by a tour of the new Women’s History Month exhibit in the Capitol’s second-floor War Room.