Why We Can Call NY Nation's Abortion Capital

All of the rage the pro-abortion mobs are expressing on the streets of Manhattan over the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case is for naught.

That’s because New York has on the books one of the most permissive abortion laws in the nation. Sadly, this writer's home state has a long pro-abortion record.

Here’s the history in a nutshell.

On March 18, 1970, Senate Majority Leader Earl Brydges permitted a no-restrictions abortion bill to come to the floor for debate. Brydges, an ardent foe of abortion, decided he could placate some of his critics by permitting a vote on legislation he was certain would be defeated.

During the debate, however, Senator Brydges realized he had miscalculated. The bill, which repealed an 1830 anti-abortion law, managed to pass with a vote of 31 to 26.

When the bill hit the assembly, it was amended to restrict abortions after twenty-four weeks’ gestation.

On March 30, proponents failed by three votes to get the needed majority.

Another roll call took place on April 9, and when it was announced that the vote was 74 to 74, a Democrat from a predominantly Catholic area in upstate New York stated that he was changing his vote to "Aye" because one of his sons had called him "a whore" for his earlier vote against the measure.

In the November 1970 elections, the New York Conservative Party and other pro-lifers came out in force and defeated legislators who had sold out on the abortion bill.

In May 1972, a chastised state legislature reinstated the 1830 statute, which Governor Nelson Rockefeller went on to veto.

While the battle over the law became moot after the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, New York remained a focal point on the issue thanks to Mario Cuomo.

In 1974, while running for lieutenant governor in the Democratic primary, The New York Times reported Cuomo, "said that if he had been a member of the Legislature, he would have voted against the 1970 law that relaxed abortion curbs in the State."

But, after losing that primary and a subsequent race for N.Y.C. mayor, Cuomo changed his tune to get elected governor in 1982.

To enhance his reputation in liberal circles Cuomo, a baptized Catholic, picked a fight with his Church over abortion.

In his famous speech at Notre Dame University on September 13, 1984, after saying "I accept the Church’s teaching on abortion," Cuomo then asked "Must I insist you do?"

Instead of taking the Church’s position at face value, namely that the right to life of the unborn child was a universal human right, Cuomo sidestepped the issue, defining his opposition as “our Catholic morality.  . . . " or "certain articles of our belief."

Despite Cuomo’s flawed reasoning his rule "I’m personally opposed to abortion but who am I to impose my views," took hold and has given cover to pro-abortion Catholic politicians to this day.

When Andrew Cuomo became governor in 2011, unlike his father who twisted Church teaching to rationalize his pro-abortion position, Andrew could care less what the Church taught on any issue.

He proposed legislation that would make abortion permissible at any time for any reason.

In January 2014, Cuomo went so far as to tell pro-life Catholics, like me, that we are not welcome in New York. "Who are they?" he asked. "Are they these extreme conservatives who are right to life.   . . . Because if that’s who they are, they’re extreme conservatives, they have no place in the State of New York because that’s not who New Yorkers are."

The legislation he approved in January of 2019, permitted infanticide and moved "abortion statues out of the penal code, codifying the right to an abortion in the state’s health laws in case the federal government were to prohibit abortion."

The expansive abortion law was not good enough for Governor Kathy Hochul, a baptized Catholic, who succeeded Cuomo.

After the Justice Samuel Alito decision was leaked, she called for a state constitutional amendment.

Then on June 13, she signed egregious legislation into law that will likely increase the number of abortions.

The state is now an abortion "sanctuary."

The state will expend tax dollars to invite out-of-state women to come to New York to procure an abortion and to pay for the procedure.

The law also permits the state to investigate pro-life pregnancy centers. "The goal," New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan, has noted, "is to intimidate these wonderful organizations into shutting down."

Pretty gruesome stuff.

Since the turn of the century, there have been more abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 14 to 44 in New York than any other state in the nation.

Abortion Rates Among Women 14-55 Years Old

(Per Thousand)

George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the author of "The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact," and "Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy." Read George J. Marlin's Reports — More Here.