Even More Gubernatorial Abortion Radicalism

Just when you thought New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had gone about as far as he could in supporting extremist abortion laws and policies, he manages to find ways to go even more radical Last week, the Governor announced a new state-funded website that gives people information about how to get an abortion. In bold, large-font type with strange capitalization reminiscent of Twitter rants, his internet announcement invokes an approaching anti-abortion apocalypse in such exaggerated and hyperbolic terms that they would exceed the most generous Orwellian standards:

In Light of Widespread Reports that Crisis Pregnancy Centers Provide Misleading, Medically Inaccurate Information on Reproductive Services to Dissuade Abortion, Campaign Connects Women to Accurate Information on Options for Unintended Pregnancies, Including Abortion. Facing Relentless Federal Attacks on Reproductive Rights, Governor Cuomo Will Fight Back to Protect Women's Access to Reproductive Rights and Continue to Call on Senate to Codify Roe v. Wade

These alleged "widespread reports" actually come from the Governor's allies in the abortion industry, and he gladly parrots all of their propagandistic talking points. As for "relentless attacks", those are only in the fervid imaginations of abortion zealots, whose company the Governor regularly keeps and who are happy to number him among the true believers by endorsing him for re-election. Does anyone really believe there's a lack of access to abortion in New York? My office did some research a few years ago and found over 40 places to get an abortion in the City of New York alone. Mr. Google is happy to provide an extremely long list of abortion clinics in New York State, just for the asking. A simple search yields over 22 million hits, some of which might not be a place to have a child killed, but an awful lot of them are, and some of them are even helpfully reviewed by Yelp.   The horrific official abortion statistics from the New York State Health Department put the lie to any claim that there is difficulty getting abortions in our state:

• 86,627—the total number of abortions in New York State in 2015 -- more than two sell-out crowds at the Mets' Citi Field.
• 367—the number of abortions per 1,000 live births in the state. In other words, over a quarter of all pregnancies in our state ends with an abortion.
• 505—the number of abortions per 1,000 live births in New York City. In other words, over a third of all pregnancies in the City ends with an abortion.
• 1,038—the number of abortions per 1,000 live births for African-Americans in New York City. So there are more abortions than live births among African-Americans.
• 2,106—the number of abortions in our state after 20 weeks -- after the time when unborn children can feel pain. How much more inhumane can we be, than to dismember a living human being who feels the pain of it?
• 2,854 -- the number of abortions where the mother had already had at least 5 prior abortions.

Seriously, if those numbers don't horrify you, or at least give you pause, then I fear for the state and fate of your soul The Governor's attack on pro-life pregnancy centers is truly bizarre. His press flacks said, "We are launching this public awareness campaign to combat the insidious spread of misleading, medically inaccurate information about reproductive health and to ensure all New York women know the options they are legally entitled to."n Insidious? Really? You mean when pregnancy center volunteers actually tell women the real facts about the stages of fetal development, the potential side-effects of abortions, and remind them that an abortion ends the life of a real human being? Horrors. Of course, they cite no actual evidence whatsoever that pregnancy centers pose a threat to anything, because there is none. Anyone who thinks that volunteer-run, shoe-string-budget pregnancy centers are some kind of massive stealth threat to women's health has drunk too much pro-abortion Kool-Aid One can only assume that the people who write the Governor's scripts haven't seen the videos of women being taken from Planned Parenthood clinics in ambulances due to complications from abortions, or they didn't read the recent stories of the doctor who pleaded guilty this year to killing a woman in a botched abortion. Or perhaps they didn't ask the Governor how many abortion clinics his Health Department has inspected recently (because it's virtually none) and how many unlicensed clinics they've shut down (absolutely none). They certainly have never interviewed the women who have been coerced into abortions, or who were the victims of sex traffickers or abusers who were never reported by abortion clinics. I guess they were too busy complaining about pregnancy centers to investigate the abuses of the abortion industry Or perhaps they have discerned certain truths that are embedded deep in their hearts, and are reacting angrily because they feel threatened in their distorted worldview. Perhaps they realize that if women are truly presented with their options, in a loving and supportive environment, they might actually choose not to have an abortion. Perhaps they're afraid that women will reject the lie that they cannot fully participate in life if they have an inconvenient pregnancy. Perhaps they're worried that more and more women will see that life is a beautiful gift, and that when we receive it generously we become better people The truth is a frightening thing, when you're in the grip of a radical anti-life ideology.