New York Can’t Block Late-Term Abortion in Certain Cases, Schneiderman Says

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman on Wednesday took a large step toward making New York one of several states to allow late-term abortions in cases where the mother’s health is in jeopardy or the fetus suffers a fatal complication, relying on Supreme Court rulings he said overrode existing law.

In a new legal opinion, Mr. Schneiderman said the 1970 state law, which criminalizes abortion past 24 weeks of pregnancy unless the mother’s life is endangered, did not square with the later Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade and other cases.

“New York law cannot criminalize what the federal Constitution protects, and thus the Penal Law should be interpreted to be consistent with the Constitution,” the opinion says.

While the state law remains on the books, the opinion from Mr. Schneiderman, a Democrat, now gives hospitals and clinics the legal grounding to perform such abortions. Reproductive rights advocates say that no providers currently offer such procedures in New York, so doctors have to send women who need late-term abortions elsewhere — most often to Colorado, where they are legal.

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