Kevin Leininger: New York shows abortion battle will go on even if Roe vs. Wade goes away; what then?

Jan. 29--It's been 23 years since Bill Clinton insisted abortion should be "safe, legal and rare." But as 2,000 pro-life supporters marched in Fort Wayne Saturday to mourn the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, events in New York were making it clear Clinton's Democratic Party has abandoned two of his three goals -- and that not even a strengthened conservative court majority will be able to restore sanity anytime soon.

Andrew Cuomo, New York's Catholic governor who in 2014 told abortion opponents they had "no place" in his state, marked the anniversary of the Roe decision by gleefully signing a bill that will make abortion more plentiful and less safe, then ordered the spire of the One World Trade Center in Manhattan and other landmarks be lit in pink to "celebrate this achievement and shine a bright light forward for the rest of the nation to follow."

To Cuomo, the new Reproductive Health Act is "a historic victory for New Yorkers and for our progressive values." But it could become a Pyrrhic victory because it exposes the cynical nature of the progressive agenda while warning abortion opponents the true battle for life was not lost in the courts -- and will not be won there, either.

Intended as a pre-emptive strike against the possibility that recent and perhaps future Trump appointees to the high court will be able to overturn Roe, New York has removed abortion from its criminal codes, allows non-doctors to perform the procedure and gives health-care providers -- including nurse practitioners, physician assistants and even midwives -- permission to end late-term pregnancies if in their "reasonable and good faith professional judgment" they believe birth would jeopardize a woman's "health."

But it's often forgotten that on the same day of its Roe decision the Supreme Court also issued its Doe vs. Bolton ruling in which it defined health as pertaining to "physical, emotional, psychological, familial and age." In other words, if a women wants an abortion in New York up to the moment of birth, she'll be able make a legal case for one.

So for all of Cuomo's self-congratulatory talk of how this and similar laws in other states represent a"giant step forward in the hard-fought battle to ensure a woman's right to make her own decisions about her own personal health," nothing could be further from the truth. Abortion is a serious medical procedure that can result in potentially fatal complications -- and not just for the unborn child. Making it easier for people with less medical training to perform them will not make abortions "safe," and removing criminal penalties for harming even wanted unborn children will not protect pregnant women from those wishing to do them and their "fetus" harm.

Constitutionally speaking, Roe was a bad decision that deserves to be reversed. But if Roe is reversed, what happened in New York could happen again. That's the Constitution, too: Under federalism, liberal states will embrace expansive abortion rights, just as some states have already passed laws that will outlaw abortion should Roe be vacated.

This is not to say abortion opponents should abandon their focus on the law. Allen County has no abortion clinic today in large part because the county commissioners in 2010 passed an ordinance requiring itinerant abortion "providers" to have a local back-up doctor in case of emergency.

But with the number of abortions declining nationwide in recent years, something else has been going on, too: Advances in medical technology have made it obvious life begins in the womb, and that undeniable medical truth, coupled with moral persuasion, has effectively countered the argument that having an abortion is like having an appendix removed. The libertarian position should be pro-life, not pro-choice, unless society is ready to assume that children, genetically distinct from their mothers, would choose not to be born.

Still, moral persuasion requires moral leadership, and Cuomo and other pro-choice politicians of various faiths are proof such leadership is lacking. Cuomo has praised Pope Francis' opposition to the death penalty, but he sees no hypocrisy in sentencing the unborn to death despite his church's teaching that abortion in inherently wrong. Worse, his church has not exerted the discipline required in such cases. Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan says excommunicating Cuomo is not appropriate because "excommunication should not be used as a weapon."

No, it should be used as a teaching tool, and a call to repentance. But who repents for exercising what Cuomo insists is "fundamental right," especially when the church fails to act?

The pro-life movement and faithful clergy must continue to proclaim that such rights are wrong, even when they are legal -- perhaps especially when they are legal. It is there, in each individual conscience, where the battle ultimately must be won.

In the meantime, few seem to notice that the 9/11 memorial near the New York tower Cuomo drenched in pink lists the names of 11 women killed that day -- "and her unborn child."

This column is the commentary of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The News-Sentinel. Email Kevin Leininger at kleininger@news-sentinel.com or call him at 461-8355.

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