Last week, the New York Senate passed a bill legalizing abortions all the way up until birth. At a glance, even the most pro-choice person may be taken aback at the thought of killing fully developed babies, but many people stop here and do not look into the bill much further. This Bill removes abortion from the criminal code and places it within the realm of public health law. The new bill requires that for these late-term abortions to meet legal status, the mother’s health must be directly put at risk if the baby were to be carried to term (i.e., the mother would die or have health complications extreme enough to lead to death) or the fetus will not be viable outside of the womb.

One side of the argument is that all human lives are meaningful and even fetus’ should be given a chance at life. Naomi Chernowski (11) said in an interview with the Catalyst, that when it comes to the new bill on abortion, “If there is the potential of hurting the woman or baby, I believe that there is always a small chance of life and that chance is worth taking.” She explains that she feels that abortion is still killing a child regardless of the way it was conceived and that it is not okay in any circumstance even those that can result in harm if the baby is carried to term. Many others on this side of the argument seem to harbor similar feelings, such as Ansley McKenzie (12), who stated that “at a certain point abortion shouldn’t be an option because the baby does start to function as a person while in utero.” However being against these late-term abortions begs the questions, what are the other options for these prospective mothers? When asked this question, Jillian Meharg (12) she said she didn’t believe there needed to be an alternative, just put the child up for adoption. Although this is good in theory, the baby may already be destined for adoption/foster care may, if the mother has health complications during birth and dies while in labor.

On the other side of this argument is those who are pro-choice and believe decisions involving abortion should be left up to those who must make the decision. In the case of the new bill Geraldine Duque (12) explains that from what she has seen, especially on social media, many people are making their arguments based on headlines they have read, without having done any research on the bill. She then went on to say that she believes what many people are failing to see is that the only way these late-term abortions are legal is when the mother’s health must be preserved and her life or health is in danger, or if the fetus is not viable outside of the womb. This scenario may be especially important to consider in the context of the new law, as in most cases, there is a life at risk regardless, whether it be that of the mother or the baby. Adams also created a scenario that is provokes your brain to say the least: “The woman receiving a late-term abortion could be a single mother of three, who would have died had she gone into labor, who had to choose to save her own life by terminating her fetus for the sake of her other children. She had to choose the best of two bad options for the sake of those who are dependent on her. How can you say leaving three (four, if the baby was carried to term) children orphaned? Who could potentially wind up in the foster care system, which isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, is a better scenario than having the choice to avoid this?” It is not an easy choice for a mother to make, which means that it was not something she thought about lightly and for a mother to have a late-term abortion, she would’ve h

ad an excellent reason.