New York

New York lags behind other states in protecting the health and safety of women considering abortion.  It does not have either an informed consent or a parental involvement law, nor does it provide effective limits on the public funding of abortion.
  

• In Hope v. Perales, the due process provision of the New York Constitution was interpreted as protecting a woman’s right to abortion.
• New York does not have an informed consent law for abortion and does not protect the right of parents to be involved in the abortion decisions of their minor daughters.
• New York taxpayers are required by statute to fund “medically necessary” abortions for women receiving public assistance.
• Under current legal precedent, New York’s requirement that abortions after the first trimester be performed in hospitals is unenforceable.

• The state limits the performance of abortions to licensed physicians.
• The state has an enforceable abortion reporting law, but does not require the reporting of information to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).  The measure pertains to both surgical and nonsurgical abortions.
• New York provides funding to pregnancy care centers and other abortion alternatives.
• Hospitals providing emergency care for sexual assault victims must provide “emergency contraception.”
• Health plans that provide prescription coverage must provide coverage for contraception.  The provision includes an exemption so narrow it excludes the ability of most employers and insurers with moral or religious objections from exercising the exemption.
• New York maintains the crime of “aggravated interference with health care services” in the first and second degrees.  The statute provides, in pertinent part, that “a person is guilty of the crime of aggravated interference with health care services… when he or she… causes physical injury to such other person who was obtaining or providing, or was assisting another person to obtain or provide reproductive health services.”

• Under New York law, the killing of an unborn child after the 24th week of pregnancy is defined as a homicide.
• The state allows a wrongful death (civil) action only when an unborn child is born alive following a negligent or criminal act and dies thereafter.
• New York law states that the “opportunity to obtain medical treatment of an infant prematurely born alive in the course of an abortion shall be the same as the rights of an infant born spontaneously.”  Thus, the state has created a specific affirmative duty of physicians to provide medical care and treatment to infants born alive at any stage of development.
• New York has a “Baby Moses” law, establishing a safe haven for mothers to legally leave their infants at designated places and ensuring the infants receive appropriate care and protection.
• The state funds drug treatment programs for pregnant women and newborns.

• New York does not prohibit human cloning, destructive embryo research, or fetal experimentation.
• New York has a state board that disburses state monies for destructive embryo research.  The monies may not fund cloning-to-produce-children.  Further, New York is the first state to publicly fund the dangerous procedure of human egg harvesting.
• The state does not regulate assisted reproductive technologies.

• New York expressly prohibits assisted suicide. Under a criminal statute, assisted suicide is defined as a form of manslaughter. This prohibition has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

• A person who objects in writing and on the basis of religious beliefs or conscience is not required to perform or assist in an abortion.
• Staff members of the State Department of Social Services may refuse to provide family planning services if in conflict with their cultural values, conscience, or religious convictions.

• New York currently provides no protection for the rights of healthcare providers who conscientiously object to participation in human cloning, destructive embryo research, and other forms of immoral medical research.

• New York considered legislation requiring informed consent and a reflection period before abortion, limiting abortion funding, and supporting pregnancy care centers.
• The state also considered a state “Freedom of Choice Act” and measures unnecessarily regulating and/or interfering with the work of pregnancy care centers.
• New York adopted a state budget measure appropriating funds to the “Empire State Stem Cell Research Account” (which promotes destructive embryo research).
• New York considered legislation regulating assisted reproductive technologies.

• New York considered measures permitting physician-assisted suicide and measures relating to pain management and palliative care.

Top Priorities:

• State Constitutional Amendment (providing that there is no state constitutional right to abortion)
• Abortion Mandate Opt-Out Act
• Defunding the Abortion Industry and Advancing Women’s Health Act
• Women’s Right to Know Act
• Parental Notification for Abortion Act
• Women’s Health Protection Act (abortion clinic regulations)
• Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act
• Crimes Against the Unborn Child Act

Other Priorities: Abortion:

• Women’s Ultrasound Right to Know Act
• Coercive Abuse Against Mothers Prevention Act
• Child Protection Act
• Joint Resolution Commending Pregnancy Care Centers

Legal Recognition and Protection for the Unborn:

• Unborn Wrongful Death Act
• Pregnant Woman’s Protection Act

Bioethics:

• Human Cloning Prohibition Act
• Destructive Embryo Research Act
• Prohibition on Public Funding of Human Cloning and Destructive Embryo Research Act

Healthcare Freedom of Conscience:

• Healthcare Freedom of Conscience Act

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