Abinanti Votes to Protect a Woman's Right to Choose

Assemblyman Tom Abinanti (D-Greenburgh/Mt. Pleasant) announced the Assembly today passed the Women’s Reproductive Health Act (A.6221) that would guarantee a woman’s right to choose and ensure constitutionally protected access to safe, legal abortion.

“I am pro-choice and I am proud to have voted yes to protect women throughout the state,” said Abinanti. “People have a right to make their own healthcare decisions. Government should not tell people which medical procedures they can and cannot have.”

Abinanti has long been a strong defender of women’s pro-choice rights. He served as pro-bono attorney for the Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion for 18 years.

The legislation would amend the outdated language of New York state law, affirming the constitutional right to make reproductive decisions that women have had since the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision. If signed into law, women in New York will still have the right to choose even if Roe v. Wade is overturned at the federal level.

“It is not enough that Roe v. Wade is federal decisional law,” said Abinanti. “It should also be part of New York statutory law to ensure that we protect a woman’s right to choose their own reproductive healthcare.”

Abinanti also sponsors the Reproductive Health Care Facilities Act (A.182) which would protect women by establishing a “buffer zone” to prohibit interference with access to reproductive health care services. The legislation was recently featured in an article on Vox which profiled various state-level initiatives to expand and protect reproductive rights for women.