It appears that New York government has a case of political schizophrenia. Is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s radical abortion agenda (See RHA) merely about updating current New York law to match the Federal statute as Senator Stewart-Cousins insists or is it something else? This is what Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins said about it in a recent interview.
By way of stubborn fact two things should be pointed out:
- The RHA goes way beyond updating. A recent comparison of the Federal statute and Cuomo’s proposed legislation cuts through the smoke and mirrors.
- Cuomo himself says its not about merely updating New York law to Federal law.
When asked about the purpose of the Reproductive Health Act on February 17th the governor gave the real reason for ‘updating’ the law according to Jessica Bakeman writing for the Democrat and Chronicle as ensuring State laws are as liberal as they can be so that when Roe is overturned access to abortion is maintained. “‘Maybe not this year, but it could happen,” he said, ‘and if you have a state law, you’re protected.’”
So according to Cuomo himself the Reproductive Health Act is about abortion expansion and not about reconciling current NY State law with Federal statute. He is actually afraid the Federal statute will be reversed. If he was about keeping NY law in lockstep with Federal statute he would be apologizing for things like the Marriage Equality Act or the gun control Safe Act. But how does Cuomo’s words square with Stewart-Cousins’ portrayal of his support of the measure as merely sauntering through the meadow of sexual health updating here, trimming back there? It can’t be both. If Cuomo’s primary concern is matching State law with Federal statutes then he would repeal recent gun control measures as well as the marriage equality act. But Cuomo himself said in his recent state of the State address that he wants New York to be the progressive leader for America. No, says Cousins, he just wants to keep things updated. If he really were concerned about codifying federal statutes then his concern that Roe would be overturned would only cause him to cool his political jets about passing a bill that would shortly have to be repealed anyway to keep things ‘updated.’
On the other hand we could take Cuomo at his word. In which case we would understand that he is only interested in a radical abortion expansion agenda. Hence we are left to presume that Stewart-Cousins’ notion of merely codifying Roe is political propaganda designed to misguide NY citizens and cement NY as the abortion capital of the U.S.
What would be really nice is if Cuomo consulted with the New Yorkers he presumes to represent. Here is a link to a poll if he would care to read it. If he did he would find a super majority in opposition to the abortion expansion measures he is proposing such as allowing non-physicians to perform surgical abortion procedures, pitting parental rights against the state by making contraception a fundamental human right, threatening discrimination lawsuits for medical providers who refuse to refer for abortion, reducing penalties for crimes against pregnant women, etc, etc. Cuomo’s abortion expansion agenda is bad for women, bad for the medical profession, bad for parents, certainly bad for babies, and should be toxic to anyone’s political career.