New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo finally had his Women’s Equality Act passed Monday, Jan. 27. According to the New York Women’s Equality Coalition, this 10-point legislation is a force of defense for women’s rights in New York.
It ends a loophole, which prior to its passing, allowed employers to justify paying women less. It also has “prohibit[ed] building owners, managers and leasing agents from refusing to lease or sell, or evicting a tenant because of their status as a domestic violence victim.”
The act also includes greater protection for victims of human trafficking and greater punishment for human traffickers. It allows women to press sexual harassment charges in small businesses when before, if the company had fewer than four employees they wouldn’t have been able to press charges.
The bill is a wrecking ball in regards to breaking down a lot of barriers for women in both the workplace and also in their own lives.
Unfortunately, these leaps and bounds towards women’s equality seem to be overshadowed by the abortion provisions that held the bill up in Senate over the summer, and I can understand why. The bill will allow women to get an abortion up to 24 weeks of their pregnancy.
Though I am pro-choice, I feel that the time period allotted is too long. Obviously there are special circumstances for women with life-threatening complications due to their pregnancy or victims of sexual assault, but for the rest of the women who are sexually active and should be responsible for their sex lives, I feel that if they choose to have an abortion, it needs to take place in the first eight weeks before the embryo becomes a fetus.
With that being said, there’s been a lot of misinformation over the last week or so since the bill’s passing. An article published by 100PercentFedUp.com, a conservative news site, created a huge uproar with its headline that read, “New York Abortion Bill Oks Shooting Babies Through the Heart With Poison to Kill Them.”
They later state in the article that the bill “would expand access to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy for essentially any reason, would allow non-doctors to perform these surgical procedures, and provides no conscience protections for medical professionals opposed to taking human life.”
Disturbed by this news, I did my research and found that the article was just an exaggeration of the real truth and written with pretty poor journalistic standards.
Here are the facts according to the new Women’s Equality Act explained more simply by the New York Women’s Equality Coalition: women can get an abortion up to 24 weeks of their pregnancy given that their life or health is in danger and physicians performing abortions within their medical scope cannot be prosecuted for performing the procedure.
Beginbeforebirth.org reported that at 24 weeks the fetus is growing eyebrows and eyelashes and can hear noises. Because this baby can be born alive as extremely premature, most states will not allow abortions this late in the pregnancy.
I believe this has caused a lot of the inaccurate claims being made, but New York pro-lifers aren’t likely going to get anywhere if they choose to fight for the bill to be repealed.
An article published by the New York Times June 17, 2013, presented the termination periods during pregnancy from across the country. New York is one of 25 other states, including Florida, that allow abortions between weeks 24 and 26. Iowa, Texas and Virginia allow abortions between weeks 28 and 36.
During this time, the baby’s eyesight and billions of neurons are developing, and it can be considered pre-term if born early. There are 10 states, including New Jersey, and the District of Columbia, which have no set point when an abortion can’t be done.
Given these facts, I doubt that this bill will be repealed. New York is far from being alone in its restrictions on terminating a pregnancy, and the bill has nine other heavy hitting points that genuinely create more protection and support for women.
I don’t agree with how late the termination periods are set because at that point, though the cases and chances of survival are small, the baby could be born as extremely preterm.
However, some amendments could be made to the bill, or a separate bill regarding abortions could be submitted to the Senate.
These amendments can include things like requiring counseling for women who choose to undergo an abortion and counseling to anyone who knows someone having an abortion because of secondary trauma, which is very common. Women’s health clinics and hospitals should be the only health practices to be allowed to perform the procedure.
Greater sex education in grade school should be added because a lot of what was once education has since been translated into abstinence education, according to CBS News.
Sex education, including making kids more familiar with Planned Parenthood and removing the shame-cloud from talking about protection, can help reduce the number of abortions.
This new Women’s Equality Act is a spearhead in the battle for women’s equality in the U.S. Though the alloted time in the abortions provision is too long, I don’t think the bill should be repealed.
This bill won’t increase or decrease the abortion rates in the U.S., but greater sex education and more discussions on options for sexually active people will help in the reduction of unwanted pregnancies and overall reduce the need for abortions.
Kaela Bernardino can be reached at kaela.bernardino@spartans.ut.edu