NYCLU Says First-ever Federal Ban On Abortion Procedures Endangers The Health Of New York Women

This first-ever national ban on safe abortion procedures represents an unprecedented federal intrusion into New York’s pro-choice policies and gravely endangers the health of women in our state, the New York Civil Liberties Union said today. New York has repeatedly rejected attempts to ban safe abortion procedures.

“Now the federal government—many of whose members claim to support the rights of states to make their own policies—passed a law that could put a New York doctor in jail for performing a procedure that is safe and medically appropriate to protect a woman’s health,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU.

“Congress and the President persisted with this law despite the Supreme Court’s unequivocal ruling three years ago that so-called “partial birth abortion” bans are far-reaching and dangerous to women’s health,” said Rebekah Diller, Director of the NYCLU’s Reproductive Rights Project. “Like the Nebraska law struck down in that case, Stenberg v. Carhart, the federal ban fails to contain a health exception and is written so broadly that it prohibits the safest and most common abortion procedures used after 12 weeks, and well before fetal viability. This ban dangerously plays politics with the health of New York women.”