Gov. Cuomo's Changing Standards of the Sanctity of Life

The new law provides that a woman may abort the life of her child after 24 weeks of gestation in all cases where “there is an absence of fetal viability, or at any time when necessary to protect a patient’s life or health,” up to the moment of birth.

And “health” isn’t limited to physical health — it can also mean familial or mental health.

The law also provides that physicians aren’t the only professionals that can abort pregnancies — nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, and “qualified health care professionals” are now permitted to perform the procedure.

The old Democratic Party’s mantra that abortions should, in all cases, be “safe, legal and rare,” has been reduced to they should just be legal — period.

When the state Senate passed the bill in its chamber, its members loudly cheered and rose in a standing ovation.

Culture of Life Africa founder Obianuju Ekeocha posted a video of the chamber’s reaction on her Twitter account, adding the hashtag, “WickednessInHighPlaces.”

New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Roman Catholic, signed the Reproductive Health Act into law Tuesday, and ordered that the spire of Manhattan’s One World Trade Center be bathed in a bright pink glow in celebration. Surprise! It’s a girl!

Cuomo has an odd sense of “morality” and the sanctity of life. Less than six months earlier, the governor stood in solidarity with Pope Francis, in stating that the death penalty was reprehensible.

“The death penalty is morally indefensible and has no place in the 21st century,” he tweeted. “Today, in solidarity with @pontifex and in honor of my father, I will be advancing legislation to remove the death penalty from State law once and for all.”

Apparently a death penalty is only “morally indefensible” when applied to murderers, rapists, mass shooters, kidnappers, and child abductors. It doesn’t apply to the innocent.

That distinction wasn’t lost on the Most Rev. Edward B. Scharfenberger, the Bishop of Albany who, in an open letter to Cuomo published in The Evangelist, reminded him that “you cited your Catholic faith and said we should ‘stand with Pope Francis.’”

But contrary to the governor’s earlier commitment, the bishop told Cuomo that “your advocacy of extreme abortion legislation is completely contrary to the teachings of our pope and our Church.”

He then took Cuomo’s hypocrisy for advocating the law’s “aggressive extremism” to task.

“It is very difficult to understand how you can align yourself with Pope Francis and so vehemently advocate such profoundly destructive legislation,” Scharfenberger said. “I find myself wondering how it can be viewed as ‘progress’ to have gone from a society working to make abortion ‘rare’ to one that urges women to ‘shout your abortion’ as some advocates of this bill boldly announce.”

So what happened in the months between the time Cuomo heralded the sanctity of life and the time he thought life was of little consequence?

Maybe he took to heart the suggestions of Democratic Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Kamala Harris of California, that it was time to employ a religious test for judicial nominees — especially Catholics who are members of the church’s charitable organization, the Knights of Columbus.

Article VI of the U.S. Constitution prohibits the use of religious tests, something the senators should have known — they’re both law school graduates.

Or perhaps Cuomo recalled the remarks of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, another California Democrat, who made the devout Catholicism of judicial nominee Amy Coney Barrett an issue. Feinstein told her, “the dogma lives loudly within you, and that's of concern.”

Or it could be that he took notice of Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., at the same hearing. Although himself a Catholic, Durbin asked Barrett, "Do you consider yourself an orthodox Catholic?"

There’s that religious test again, and like Hirono and Harris, he’s also law school-trained.

But when all’s said and done, the governor’s moral scruples, dedication to the sanctity of life, and even adherence to his Catholic faith is more-than-likely similar to that of other Democrats — it’s tidal in nature: It comes in, then goes out.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He’s also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. To read more of his reports - Click Here.