On the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the New York legislature expanded abortion rights in the state. The action was met with applause.

We do not dwell often on abortion here at Bereans@TheGate. That is probably to our detriment. In some ways, the issue feels out of hand since it is now more a legal and constitutional matter as opposed to one of pure politics. At the same time, there are important bills relating to abortion being proposed and debated across the country, including a recent Ohio measure that sought to limit abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detectable. New York’s actions prove more scrutiny is deserved.

Pro-life advocates have a straightforward case to make. A fetus is a person and therefore deserves legal protection. There are better and worse ways to make this argument, but those are tactical concerns. The pro-life strategy, even if it is not persuasive, is simple. Pro-choice proponents have a harder path to navigate given the nature of abortion itself. Even if you are convinced a fetus is not human, it is still potentially human. This mere clump of cells has a future so long as it survives the womb. Pro-choice champions have to convince themselves and others that destroying that clump is justifiable.

For some period of time, the community took a solemn approach to abortion, arguing it should be “safe, legal, and rare.” Bill Clinton used that phrase when he repealed some abortion-related executive orders from the Reagan-Bush era in 1993. This was in contrast to earlier, more radical pro-choice slogans like, “abortion on demand,” or “abortion without apology.” The “safe, legal, and rare” construction at least implicitly recognized the gravity of the choice and explicitly acknowledged a desire to reduce the sheer number of abortions.

Those days are behind us. The pro-choice movement, it seems, sees abortion as just another form of birth control. Abortion for them is not a conundrum, tragedy, or dilemma. It is, to sanitize what takes place, a matter of “reproductive health” for the mother. Beyond health, abortion, more than anything, defines female equality. It is not the right to vote, hold office, own property, or bring lawsuits, but the right to end a pregnancy. This, for feminists and their political allies, is sacred writ.

The New York law codifies a 24 week standard, whereby women may have an abortion, effectively on demand, into the fifth or sixth month of gestation. The law also allows non-physicians to perform the procedure. Physician assistants can provide surgical abortions, while nurse practitioners and midwives may use non-surgical methods. The law also allows for abortion after 24 weeks to protect the mother’s life and health. “Health” is the key word since it can be defined physically, psychologically, socially, and economically according to Supreme Court precedents.

New York’s protection of abortion, even in comparison to some European counterparts, is radical. In Germany, abortions after 12 weeks are forbidden except for a grave threat to life or health. Women are also required a three-day period of reflection and counseling before the procedure occurs. In Finland and Denmark, the laws are similar, with abortion largely forbidden after 12 weeks, though those nations are more flexible in defining risks to the mother’s health. In Canada, according to this source, it is difficult to find a physician or facility willing to abort past 20 weeks.

Abortion in New York may be safe and legal, but it is not rare. In 2016, the last year for which statistics are available, 82,189 abortions were performed. More than 1,700 of those were either at or past 20 weeks of pregnancy. Instead of recognizing the difficulty, or at least the moral complexity of such decisions, New York’s elected officials, by a count of 38-24 in the Senate and 92-47 in the Assembly, voted for more. Then they clapped and celebrated. The night was capped off by illuminating some New York landmarks in pink, including the 400+ foot spire at One World Trade Center, which is now a monument to a different kind of freedom.

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