I went to the source to review it I found there were two bills originally considered, state bill S2796 and S240. Only S240 was signed by the governor. But I am listing them both here just for reference…they are pretty much the same.
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2017/S2796 https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s240 I read this bill and find nothing that says you can have an abortion up to 40 weeks. In fact it says that unless it is in an effort to preserve the life of the mother or the child is no longer viable, an abortion performed past 24 weeks is considered murder. Now something I did see that has me bothered is that you don’t have to be a doctor to perform an abortion, nor to determine how far along a woman’s pregnancy has progressed. It specifically states: § 2599-BB. ABORTION. 1. A HEALTH CARE PRACTITIONER LICENSED, CERTI- FIED, OR AUTHORIZED UNDER TITLE EIGHT OF THE EDUCATION LAW, ACTING WITH-IN HIS OR HER LAWFUL SCOPE OF PRACTICE, MAY PERFORM AN ABORTION WHEN,ACCORDING TO THE PRACTITIONER’S REASONABLE AND GOOD FAITH PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT BASED ON THE FACTS OF THE PATIENT’S CASE: THE PATIENT IS WITHIN TWENTY-FOUR WEEKS FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF PREGNANCY, OR THERE IS AN ABSENCE OF FETAL VIABILITY, OR THE ABORTION IS NECESSARY TO PROTECT THE PATIENT’S LIFE OR HEALTH. If you go to title 8 of the education law you find it covers everything from soup to nuts, but does have a section for medicine which specifically addresses licensed physicians. But the actual health care reform act only says it needs to be a health care practitioner. Health care practitioners range from PAs to acupuncturists to podiatrist to chiropractics and everything in between. I couldn’t find a specific license for abortionist, though I didn’t read each and every entry…just the ones I thought applied. My feeling is that if they specifically wanted a doctor, they would have stated licensed physician instead of health care practitioner. It does say Within his or her lawful scope of practice but when you are vague about the actual needed training, you are opening up a can of worms. To further explain this point, I went to a federal definition for Licensed Health Care Practitioner:
https://definitions.uslegal.com/l/licensed-health-care-practitioner/ This definition specifically excludes physicians. It also seems to state that all that is required is for a person to say they are a licensed health care practitioner and all is good.