ALBANY, N.Y. (AP/WBEN) - New York state enacted one of the nation's strongest protections for abortion rights Tuesday, a move that state leaders say was needed to safeguard those rights should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.
The Democrat-led Senate and Assembly passed the bill Tuesday, the 46th anniversary of the Roe decision. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo immediately signed it into law. At his side at a hastily arranged signing ceremony was Sarah Weddington, the Texas attorney who successfully argued Roe before the nation's highest court.
"We have a president who has made it very, very clear that he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade," said the Senate's new leader, Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Yonkers, who vowed to make the bill an early priority in 2019. "Today in New York we are saying 'No. Not here in New York.'"
Opponents lamented the enactment of the act, which some predicted would lead to an increase in late-term abortion. Others argued that the new law could make it harder for prosecutors to bring charges when a woman is assaulted and loses her pregnancy.
"Today, New York state has added a sad chapter to this already solemn date of January 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade," the state's Catholic bishops said in a statement.
Republicans in the Senate tried to derail the bill and offered up proposals to create new legal penalties for harming a pregnant woman. They were joined at a press conference Tuesday morning by Livia Abreu, an Army veteran and Bronx resident whose ex-boyfriend stabbed her last year, ending her 26-week pregnancy. The man faces multiple charges, including violations of the state's 1970 law. Abreu said repealing the law would tie the hands of prosecutors in similar future cases.
"The loss of my daughter will be a non-factor," she said.