This Is Extortion and We Can't Let This Go On': Anti-Abortion Activists Condemn the Government's Response to New Bills As the government weighs what to do about these “draconian” measures, the Centre for Reproductive Rights is calling for action. In a series of tweets, the group slammed the bills and pointed out some of the measures in the bill. “If the goal is to reduce access to abortions in New York, these measures will fail,” said Toni Shapiro, director of the NYCLU’s Reproductive Rights Project. “Women will still obtain abortions when it is legal for them to do so. Women won’t die.” What is in these laws? Here is a list: * Any doctor performing an abortion beyond 20 weeks would be charged with murder in the second degree. Any person performing an abortion before 24 weeks would be charged with a class D felony. * Criminalizes telemedicine abortion. * A woman would have to receive, with 24-hours, a notice of the legal provisions of her state that prohibits late-term abortion. * Criminalizes the purchase of abortion inducing drugs, which includes drugs that are prescribed to induce a miscarriage. * A woman could be sentenced to up to four years in prison for attempting to self-induce an abortion by the use of medication. * Allows doctors to decide whether or not a woman has the capacity to understand she is pregnant after twenty weeks of gestation. * The first twenty weeks of pregnancy must be paid for by a pregnant woman. * Creates strict new regulations on abortion clinics, requiring clinics to be licensed and for all staff members to have state licenses. * The New York Department of Health will have the power to inspect any health facility that provides abortions. This includes the homes of healthcare providers. If the provider violates the requirement to have a license, then the medical license to practice medicine in New York state will be suspended or revoked. * Requires doctors to report to the department of health any woman who has an abortion or an attempted abortion to assess the mental or physical health of the woman. * The restrictions of this bill are based on the misguided assumption that more doctors will want to enter the abortion business if abortion is illegal. What this really will do is put off women and doctors from providing legal abortion services, according to Shapiro. “The regulations are based on assumptions that do not have any basis in reality,” Shapiro said. “New York City is already overburdened by unnecessary regulations and we urge the legislature to repeal them, not add them. Many women have to travel to get an abortion and they already face burdensome regulations, such as those regulating insurance coverage and time off work. The anti-abortion movement has made up all kinds of claims about the potential harms of abortion, but these measures will not reduce access.” SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately A report from the Guttmacher Institute last year found that although most abortions happen in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, approximately 15 percent of abortion patients received care between 13-15 weeks and only 1.3 percent received treatment after 15 weeks. According to Shapiro, it is essential to remember the safety of women is a concern not only in those early stages of pregnancy. “Even if an abortion happens after 20 weeks, these bills would have no impact on the health of a woman,” she said. “These laws will not change medical facts and they are dangerous. They would criminalize the care physicians provide and expose women to criminal penalties.” The bill is sponsored by Republican Assemblyman Steve Katz, of the Bronx, and Republican Assemblyman David I. Weprin, of the Upper West Side. It was passed through the Assembly last month, although the Assembly has not yet voted on it in the Senate, where it will have to pass through several hurdles before it reaches the governor’s desk. The bill is currently in the Senate Finance Committee. New York law currently allows abortion past 24 weeks if the woman is experiencing a serious risk of her physical or mental health or if the fetus has a condition that will result in death if born. The proposed bill would repeal that provision and instead allow for a pregnancy termination in the cases where the fetus has a severe abnormality or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. “This legislation, if enacted, will force us to stop providing safe, legal abortions, and drive women to desperate measures, and at a time when states are under increasing scrutiny to reverse the alarming decline in abortions performed at less than 13 weeks, it is unconscionable,” Shapiro said. What do you think? Is this bill justified? Are there no other options? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section. [Photo: Pixabay]