The New York State Catholic Conference issued the following statement on June 13, 2013. Bishop Malone has asked that you please share this important message. Thank you.
Playing the Partial Birth Abortion Card
Abortion industry lobbyists today announced that Gov. Cuomo’s abortion bill would be modified to include language related to partial-birth abortion. We believe such a change is intended to divert legislators’ attention from the real issues related to this bill, namely that it would expand late-term abortion for virtually any reason and would clear the way for the Department of Health to permit non-doctors to perform abortions.
The forthcoming amendment is likely to say something to the effect that nothing in the language of the bill conflicts with the federal partial-birth abortion ban, although it will most assuredly not enshrine such a ban in state law, which is ironic since the stated purpose of the abortion bill is to enshrine federal abortion policy into state law.
Let us be clear: Abortion expansion in New York is not about partial-birth abortion. Partial-birth abortion, or D&X, is one method of abortion used in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, in which a baby is partially delivered before being killed via a surgical scissors to the base of the skull. It is currently banned under federal law. An amendment to the governor’s bill saying that the federal ban would not be affected is legally redundant and pointless, and would not affect the most common and prevailing method of late-term abortion, known as D&E, which is equally brutal and inhumane. In that method, a baby is killed and dismembered while still in her mother’s womb, before being vacuumed out.
The Catholic Bishops and the pro-life community object in the strongest terms to any expansion of late-term abortion, regardless of the procedure used. It cannot be said enough that New York is the abortion capital of the country, with one in three pregnancies ending in abortion. We do not need more abortion here.
No legislator should be fooled by further attempts to obfuscate this issue in an effort to pass a bill desperately sought by the abortion industry for its own ideological and financial gain.
The Catholic Conference represents New York State’s Bishops in matters of public policy.