Fox News' Bill O'Reilly has joined a growing chorus of critics who charge that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's recently proposed abortion rights bill is extreme and, in a recent interview with conservative commentator Glenn Beck, O'Reilly called the Democratic governor "barbaric."
"Andrew Cuomo is barbaric. He’s just barbaric," O’Reilly said during last Thursday's appearance on the Glenn Beck show. "And the fact that he says he’s Roman Catholic is just staggering. They want to legalize late-term abortion for any reason. You have a migraine headache, a hang nail, a panic attack."
"It’s so barbaric that people should be rising up but you’re not going to see it because we’re too busy on our video games. We can’t pull ourselves away," O'Reilly said
O'Reilly, a New York native who presently resides on Long Island, also discussed the issue on his prime-time Fox News show, where he claimed Cuomo "does not seem to care about the safety of children."
"He’s behind a proposed new law that would allow abortions in New York State to be performed at any time for pretty much any reason. Cuomo wants to decriminalize all abortion activity," O'Reilly said.
O'Reilly's sentiments were shared at least in part by like-minded pro-life advocates.
At the New York State Catholic Conference earlier this month, Cardinal Timothy Dolan called the proposal "radical," penning a letter to Cuomo in which he noted New York state's high abortion rate, writing, "I am hard pressed to think of a piece of legislation that is less needed or more harmful than this one."
Responding to the charges made by O'Reilly against the governor's "Reproductive Health Act," Cuomo's counsel, Mylan Denerstein, on Monday claimed such characterizations of Cuomo's bill were completely wrong, reported the
New York Daily News.
"The statements made by the opposition are outrageous and disingenuous,” Denerstein wrote in a statement. “The governor’s position is to purely codify existing federal law. To be clear, there would be no change whatsoever in law and practice now existing in the state of New York."
"Opponents have misleadingly argued that the governor would create 'abortion on demand' because of the inclusion of a 'health exemption' of the mother. However a health exemption is already the law of the land," Denerstein said.
Related stories:
Pataki: Cuomo's Abortion Plan Should Be Rejected
Cuomo To Call For Late-Term Abortions for Health Reasons
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