NY Offers ‘Safe Harbor’ for Floridians Seeking Abortions

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is giving new meaning to the word “disgraceful.”  Holding the top spot in a state that’s become a byword for out-of-control crime and a flood of illegal immigration should be bad enough for any politician – but inviting Florida residents north just so they can obtain an abortion in the Empire State takes matters to a whole new level.

Hochul drew the attention with a post on the social media platform X last Monday evening, where she reacted to a Florida Supreme Court ruling earlier in the day that upheld a Sunshine State law that banned abortions after 15 weeks gestation.  The ruling cleared the way for another, even more restrictive law to go into effect.

That law, signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in April 2023, bans abortions after six weeks of gestation, though it does contain exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape, incest, or human trafficking.

Hochul’s post called the Florida law “disgraceful and dangerous.”  “Let me be clear: If you need care, New York will be your safe harbor,” she wrote, apparently addressing Florida women.

As a policy indicator, it’s par for the course for a Democrat in all-abortion-all-the-time New York.  This is a state, after all, where the law allows abortion up to 24 weeks for any reason, but puts no restrictions on the procedure after that if it’s deemed “necessary to protect the patient’s life or health.”

Without a definition of “health,” that’s a license for abortion up to birth, for any reason, regardless of the baby’s viability outside the womb, and Democrats know it.

But as a public relations statement, from the governor of a state that’s hemorrhaging population — it was a disaster.  With more than 120k views as of late Tuesday morning, virtually all of its more than 1.8K responses were filled with contempt.  On and on the responses go in virtual unanimous condemnation of Hochul’s words.

Now, any American who follows the news understands that the abortion fight isn’t going anywhere.  The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade was a momentous victory for the pro-life movement, but it also galvanized pro-abortion Democrats and was almost certainly one of the major reasons the 2022 midterms resulted in a closely divided House of Representatives when even Democrats were expecting a “red wave” of Republican victories.

It’s going to be a part of the November election in Florida — a state where DeSantis won re-election by an overwhelming margin in 2022, but where a constitutional amendment on abortion is going to be on the ballot this fall.  The amendment language states, “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”  Like the New York law, it’s a license for unrestricted abortion.

Constitutional amendments need 60 percent approval to pass, so it’s a steep climb, but regardless of whether it passes, the amendment will draw Democrats out in droves — even if they understand what a disaster the Joe Biden presidency is.

Hochul called Florida’s law “disgraceful”?  She’s giving new meaning to the word.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel