I have written before about the threat posed by Governor Cuomo's abortion expansion proposal, which he introduced earlier this year as part of his budget. See my blogs " The Governor's Cruel Abortion Bill" and " New York's Insatiable Abortion Appetite". This was a very dangerous threat, because by law a budget must be passed by April 1 and the only way to remove an item from the proposed budget is in the secret behind-the-scenes negotiations between the Governor and the leaders of the Assembly and Senate
Thanks be to God, the pro-life members of the Senate and the Republican Senate Majority Leader, John Flanagan, held firm and the proposal was not included in the final budget bills that were passed on Good Friday. We have to be so grateful for all the efforts of the New Yorkers for Life coalition, particularly the New York State Catholic Conference and New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms. And we are extremely thankful for all the work done by our pastors and parishioners, especially those in the key Senate districts that we concentrated our efforts on
But we can't rest on our laurels. The abortion expansion threat is still very real. The Governor insisted in his post-budget press conference that he would continue to press for abortion expansion during the rest of the legislative session
So we now have to focus our attention on the so-called Reproductive Health Act (A 1748/S 2796). This bill, in various forms, has been around for over a decade, and its current manifestation is virtually indistinguishable from the Governor's budget proposal. It is a radical proposal that would give New York the most liberal abortion laws in the world — in fact, it would remove any limitations on abortion from our laws. It would:

• Encourage more late-term abortions by removing our current law's limit on abortions after 24 weeks there will be more late-term abortions in our state.
• Permit non-doctors to do abortions by giving State bureaucrats unlimited discretion to grant a license to perform abortions to anyone they wanted.
• Eliminate all criminal penalties for abortions so even if an abortion was involuntary or coerced, or if an unborn child is deliberately targeted for an act of violence, it could not be prosecuted. This would basically legalize domestic violence against unborn children.
• Endanger children even after birth by eliminating a law that requires that a baby born alive after an abortion be given adequate health care. Instead, this bill would allow abortionists to leave those children to die of neglect and starvation.

For more detailed information about the bill, see our Office's information page and this bill memo from the New York State Catholic Conference
This horrible piece of legislation has already passed the Assembly, by the absurdly lopsided vote of 93 to 44. Of the forty-four Assembly members who represent parts of the Archdiocese, it is a disgrace that only seven cast pro-life votes against it — Kevin Byrne (Westchester/Putnam), Ron Castorina (Staten Island), Marcus Crespo (Bronx), Mike Cusick (Staten Island), Kieran Michael Lalor (Dutchess), Nicole Malliotakis (Staten Island) and Al Taylor (Manhattan). Kudos to them, and shame on their colleagues
The Governor already displays an Ozymandias-like level of exaggerated self-esteem about his alleged accomplishments in office. He is in a tough primary race against a very liberal opponent, so it's likely that he will push very hard for passage of the Reproductive Health Act to prove his "progressive" bona fides
We can't let that happen. We owe it to women, to unborn children yet conceived, and to all of our society to deny the Governor bragging rights for the passage of this horrendous and deadly bill