New York's Abortion Law Fails By Every Measure.

​by
Julio Gonzalez, M.D., J.D.
 
"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members."
Mahatma Gandhi
 
On January 22, 2019, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Reproductive Health Act into law.  The purpose of the new statute is to update the rights of women in accessing abortions and (anti)reproductive services.  The law also makes it legally impossible to charge someone with the murder of an unborn child. 
 
What Is A Human Life?
 
One of the great falsities promoted by pro-abortionists is that an unborn child is not a human being. Well, if she's not a human being, then what is she?  She's not a car.  Or a boat. She is most assuredly alive, and she has all the genetic information that other humans have.  So, if she's not human, what is she?
 
Pro-abortionists argue that the baby is not a human life because it is not independent. But none of us are.  We are, by nature, social animals, which make us inherently dependent on others.  And truly, if we are to use dependence as a cut-off for human life, then why do we not allow for the termination of the lives of the disabled simply because they are unable to provide for themselves?  These people are just as dependent as any unborn baby for their survival, yet the Left, at least for now, is not arguing for their active extermination. 
 
Pro-abortionists also argue that the preborn individual could not be considered human because she has not reached some preconceived point in her development.
 
Well, if that's true, then what is that point?  Does a baby magically and suddenly become a human being when it crosses the birth canal or exits the mother through the abdominal wall?  Certainly, it is hard to fathom the difference between the humanity of a just-delivered baby and that same baby ten minutes earlier.  Does the baby suddenly become human when her heart first beats, or when she feels pain, or when we can see her femora on ultrasound?  
 
The fact is that any definition of when a baby becomes a "human being" other than at the moment of conception fails under the weight of its own capriciousness. 
 
And so, we arrive at the only conclusion we can.  A baby is an independently identifiable and uniquely genetically defined human being from the moment of her conception.  
 
The Vulgarity And Lack of Necessity Of Late Term Abortions.
 
One of the two most significant changes New York's Health Reproductive Act is to allow for a legal abortion after the 24th week of gestation.  The statute accomplishes this by stating that an abortion may be performed, at any time, "to protect the patient's life or health."  Not only is this provision abjectly immoral as it allows for the senseless killing of a viable human being, it creates an escape clause for a mass murderer (the late-term abortionist) to kill   
 
It is virtually impossible to conjure a situation where an abortion is medically necessary after 24 weeks of gestation.  The reason is supremely simple: since the baby is viable in such situations, the way to protect the mother's health after 24 weeks of gestation, if the rapid discontinuation of a pregnancy becomes necessary, is by delivering a viable baby, not by killing it. 
 
With this law, the legislature in its rancid corruption and gross disregard for the sanctity of life has essentially created a new statutory (not medical) provision where the mother may demand to kill the baby.  That provision is that when the baby is more than 24 weeks gestational age, and the mother demands it be killed for her own health.
 
It will be interesting to see how physicians respond to this request when they are fully aware that all they need to do to address the mother's life-threatening or health related issue is simply to deliver a viable baby.
 
If You Are Greater Than 24 Weeks Pregnant Don't Find Yourself In New York.
 
A second appalling provision in the Reproductive Health Act is the provision prohibiting the killing of an unborn baby that is greater than 24 weeks of age from being considered murder.  
 
Suppose a robber attacks a woman for her purse, and the assailant pulls out a knife, or even a gun, in order to perpetrate the crime.  Suppose further that the mother is due to deliver later that day.  As a matter of fact, she is on her way to the hospital to deliver her baby.  The robber then shoots the mother, killing the baby.  The mother survives.  There is no murder. 
 
Say, instead that an enraged father does not want a late term baby to be born.  The mother and he are in a heated fight.  The father, in his rage, repeatedly punches the mother with the intent and effect of killing the baby.  Or perhaps, the father grabs a kitchen knife and stabs the baby through the mother, and the baby is more than 24 weeks of gestational age. The baby, of course, dies.  The mother survives.  In New York, no murder will have taken place.  Only an assault and battery upon the mother.  No justice for the baby is ever served.  
 
The Repeal Of S.4164.
 
Section 4164 of New York statutes required a physician be available to resuscitate a child who has survived an abortion.  The Reproductive Health Act admits that although this baby is legally a person, it repugnantly removes any requirement to save the life of a living, gasping, breathing human being.  
 
A Stain Upon New York.
 
Gandhi did say that the measure of a great society lies in how it treats its weakest members.  Well, the weakest members in our society are the unborn who are at times so weak that they cannot survive outside of the mother and are so silent that it is impossible for them to voice their opinion or defend their most elemental interests.  
 
A review of the meaning of fundamental and inalienable rights does provide a mother the ability to pursue an abortion.  But just like her right to punch another in the nose ends at the point where the other's nose begins, her right to actually undergo the abortion ends at the point where the baby's cells begin.  
 
By any measure, on January 22, 2019, by grossly disregarding the humanity of the unborn child and exculpating future killers of murder the New York legislature and its executive demonstrated themselves to be amongst the worst and most vile of institutions.
 
Dr. Julio Gonzalez is an orthopaedic surgeon and lawyer living in Venice, Florida. He is the author of The Federalist Pages and served in the Florida House of Representatives. He can be reached through www.thefederalistpages.com to arrange a lecture or book signing.
 
 

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