This is not ‘protecting Roe’
So much for all those claims that the Reproductive Health Act merely codified Roe v. Wade into New York law: The RHA just forced Queens prosecutors to drop fetal-homicide charges against a man arrested in the murder of his pregnant girlfriend.
Nor is that the only case: The Bronx DA had to withdraw the same charge against an attacker who killed the baby but not the mom.
The killers may still serve time for their other crimes, but an act that almost everyone sees as horrific is now just a violation of the public health codes. Surely, this is the opposite of “reproductive justice.”
In debate over the RHA, Republican senators offered an amendment to maintain the felony crime of intentionally targeting a pregnancy in an assault — but the Democratic majority voted it down.
Once the law passed, Gov. Andrew Cuomo hosted a champagne celebration as the Empire State Building, 1 World Trade and state bridges lit up in pink.
Meanwhile, Cuomo’s own Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence notes at least a fifth of women involved in domestic violence events are pregnant.
In honor of Liv Abreu, the bereaved Bronx mother, Sen. Cathy Young (R-Chautauqua) has introduced the “Liv Act” to make it a class D violent felony to assault a pregnant woman, including injury that results in termination of a pregnancy. Assemblyman Marcos Crespo (D-Bronx) will sponsor the Assembly version this week.
The Legislature should fix this horror now.