Interpreting the 2019 New York Reproductive Health Act?
<p>There has been a lot of discussion about the New York 2019 Reproductive Health Act signed by Governor Cuomo.</p>

<p>Under what conditions can a legal abortion be performed under the NY 2019 Reproductive Health Act? </p>

<p>Certain popular pundits claim that legal abortions may be performed post-birth if the mother claims that the child is a threat to her mental and/or physical health. Is an abortion legal in this case?</p>

<p>There is no time limit on performing a legal abortion. §2599-bb of <a href="https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2019/S240" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the bill</a> says that a physician </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>may perform an abortion when, according to the practitioner's
  reasonable and good faith professional    judgment based on the facts
  of the patient's case: the patient is within    twenty-four weeks from
  the commencement of pregnancy, or there is an    absence of fetal
  viability, or the abortion is necessary to protect the    patient's
  life or health</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It is left to ordinary language interpretation to understand what "abortion" is. The ordinary meaning of abortion does not include act that follow birth or a child. The law as amended still defines homicide as </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>conduct  which  causes  the  death of a person under circumstances
  constituting murder, manslaughter in the  second  degree,    or<br>
  criminally negligent  homicide</p>
</blockquote>

<p>and deleted the clause which included the clause </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>an unborn child with which a female has been pregnant for more than
  twenty-four weeks</p>
</blockquote>

<p>(this is how abortion past 24 weeks was formerly illegal). The definitions say that</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>A person, when referring to the victim of  a  homicide,  means  a
  human being who has been born and is alive</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Once a fetus becomes a person by being born, the homicide statute prohibits killing the person. So apart from the fact that killing a person is not "an abortion", the law does not make it legal to kill any man being who has been born and who is alive.</p>

<p>As for what constitutes "health", that is not delimited by law, that is, it says simply "health", not "physical health". In general, "health" without modifiers means any kind of health. In fact, in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/410/179/#tab-opinion-1950139" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Doe v. Bolton</a>, 410 U.S. 179 it was found that</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>whether a particular operation is necessary for a patient's physical
  or mental health is a judgment that physicians are obviously called
  upon to make routinely whenever surgery is considered</p>
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
<p>New York's new law makes clear that abortion is legal in the state under three circumstances:</p>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The abortion occurs before the end of the 24th week of the pregnancy.</li>
<li>The abortion is &quot;necessary to protect the patient's life or health.&quot;</li>
<li>There is an absence of &quot;fetal viability,&quot; or the ability for the fetus to survive   outside the womb. <a href="https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/politics/albany/2019/02/01/abortion-law-ny-what-reproductive-health-act-does-and-doesnt-do/2743142002/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/politics/albany/2019/02/01/abortion-law-ny-what-reproductive-health-act-does-and-doesnt-do/2743142002/</a></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>The new law extends abortion to the &quot;moment of birth&quot; if the mother can show it is needed in the interest of her health and a doctor agrees or that the fetus could not survive outside the womb. If you can't show one of those two things, abortion is not allowed after 24 weeks.</p>
<p>Abortions after the child is born are still not legal and would be considered homicide.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Killing a baby once born was and is still considered a homicide.
<a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2019/02/addressing-new-yorks-new-abortion-law/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.factcheck.org/2019/02/addressing-new-yorks-new-abortion-law/</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The reason pundits say that New York wants babies to be aborted after they are born is that the abortion is no longer in New York's penal code.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The RHA removes abortion from the state’s penal code altogether; the homicide statute still defines a “person” as “a human being who has been born and is alive.” <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2019/02/addressing-new-yorks-new-abortion-law/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.factcheck.org/2019/02/addressing-new-yorks-new-abortion-law/</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is still illegal to preform an abortion after the baby is born, but the view of the pundits is that the language of the law does not condemn the action as harshly now.</p>

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