On the 46th anniversary of Roe V. Wade, New York passed a law to protect women’s access to abortion if the historical case is ever overturned. The Court then ruled that the right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended to women's decision to have abortions. However, that right must be fully balanced against the interests of the state in regulating abortions: protecting women’s health and the potentiality of all human life. The Court tied state regulation of abortion to the third trimester of pregnancy.
This news was not accepted very well by the Pro-Life camp. “We need to be honest with the public and say that this bill does not simply codify Roe v. Wade… what this bill does is expand abortion up to birth and the third trimester,” said State Assembly Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, noting the part of the law that allows medical professionals other than doctors to perform abortions. As she noted, Roe v. Wade requires a licensed physician to perform the procedure. However, this law gets rid of that requirement and furthermore allows physician assistants, nurse practitioners as well as midwives to perform abortions.
Gynecologist Jennifer Gunter has lived in a state with no gestational age limit and performed abortions after 24 weeks. She has recently addressed her 111K Twitter followers in a thread explaining her experiences with this heart-wrenching process that several parents have to go through, and it went viral.
People were quick to share their take on the subject:
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