New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is looking to re-write the state laws on abortion. (Patja/Creative Commons)

Cuomo, looking to deliver on remarks he made in his recent State of the State address, would rewrite a law that currently allows abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy only if the woman's life is at risk. The governor's proposal would also make it clear that, in addition to physicians, licensed health care practitioners can also perform abortions.

The chances of Cuomo's plan going through are uncertain. Although the State Assembly is controlled by Democrats, the Senate is controlled by a "bipartisan governing coalition" of Republicans who oppose new abortion laws and dissident Democrats who support abortion rights.

Opponents of abortion rights are worried rewriting the laws on abortion would encourage abortion numbers to go up.

“I am hard pressed to think of a piece of legislation that is less needed or more harmful than this one,” the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, wrote in a letter to Cuomo last month.

Senate Democratic leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Yonkers, said she hopeful an abortion bill will reach the Senate floor.

“New York State’s abortion laws were passed in 1970 in a bipartisan fashion,” she said. “It would be a sad commentary that over 40 years later we could not manage to do the same thing.”

Read the full story at the New York Times. Find more Neon Tommy coverage of abortion here.

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