BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — A town board resolution which urges federal elected officials to pass a law allowing full abortion rights nationwide raised one council member’s voice in opposition.

The resolution, which was eventually approved by the board 4 to 1 at their meeting Tuesday, July 12, did not sit well with Town Councilman Marty Miller.

The town’s resolution as written opposed a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision which overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Roe v. Wade ruled that the Constitution conferred the right to abortion prior to the viability of the fetus nationwide under the auspices of a right to privacy.

Roe v. Wade, which stripped states of the right to set their own laws on abortion, has fueled controversy in the 50 years since it was passed.

The Supreme Court’s decision last month in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling and returned the decision on abortion back to state legislatures. The decision will not have any effect on current abortion access in New York State, nor is it expected to in the foreseeable future with a Democratic majority holding sway in the legislature.

At the July 12 town meeting, Miller voted against the town resolution which in part urged passage of a national abortion law.

“First of all I think this shouldn’t be on this agenda tonight,” Miller said. “Second of all, I ask myself why did… I want to be a councilman, why did I want to do this? I’m not a politician. I don’t know anything about politics. But I kind of figure that the reason I’m here is to be the voice of the ones that need a platform that want to be heard. Well I guess tonight I’m the voice of those ones that we are never going to see life because of (abortion).”

Miller said the practice of abortion was “taking care of something that’s got a heartbeat” and never allowing it to live a life. “I don’t see it,” Miller said.

“I think in our society we have to respect people who, if they believe life starts at conception, that that is a deep, deep felt belief. And then there are others who think there should be choice,” Town Supervisor Ann Carvill said. “That is not a bridge that can be traversed here.”

Abortion access in New York State is not expected to be altered by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling. The state already has what is widely considered one of the most liberal abortion laws in the country. The state’s Reproductive Health Act signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019 allows abortions for patients that are 24 weeks or more away from the start of pregnancy if the fetus is not viable or the abortion is necessary if the mother’s health is at risk. The law does not define “health” or fetal viability, but leaves that up to the health care practitioner performing the abortion.

Read the legislation here https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/S240 .

A May 4th story in U.S. News and World Report claims that, according to data from the Center for Disease Control, New York has the highest abortion rate of any state in the union, with 20.3 abortions per 1,000 women 15 to 44 years old. The story says that the CDC reported 78,587 abortions in 2019, with 8.9 percent of those obtained by out-of-state residents.