PETITION: Say “NO” to celebrating abortion by lighting up One World Trade Center. Sign the petition here.
UPDATE: As of 5:15pm Eastern on January 29, the petition has grown to over 121,000 signatures.
January 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – LifeSiteNews readers and other concerned pro-lifers have responded overwhelmingly to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s lighting of the World Trade Center in pink to celebrate a new law enshrining a “fundamental right” to virtually-unlimited abortion in the state.
This week, New York’s state Senate voted 38-24 and the state Assembly 92-47 in favor of the so-called “Reproductive Health Act.” Cuomo, who signed the bill, called it a “historic victory for New Yorkers and our progressive values” and ordered the One World Trade Center spire to be lit in pink to mark the occasion – the same building where a memorial recognizes eleven preborn children killed in the September 11 terror attacks, Susan B. Anthony List notes.
The new law declares that “Every individual who becomes pregnant has the fundamental right to choose to carry the pregnancy to term, to give birth to a child, or to have an abortion,” erases the state’s recognition of preborn babies older than 24 weeks as potential homicide victims, removes abortion from the penal code entirely, and allows licensed health practitioners other than full doctors to commit abortions.
The New York State Right to Life Committee warns that by declaring abortion a “fundamental right,” it opens the door to invalidating “any limits on abortion” and “mandat[ing] that everyone take part in the culture of death”; prevent pregnant women whose babies are killed in violent attacks from seeing justice; and have the effect of “authorizing infanticide” by repealing the requirement that a second physician be on hand in the event that an attempted abortion past twenty weeks yields a live infant.
On Wednesday afternoon, LifeSiteNews launched a petition condemning the “outrageous” gesture and calling on Cuomo to not only apologize for the celebration but to revoke his signature on the law. As of Friday morning, that petition has 77,000 signatures.
“It is appalling that you would use this building, a symbol of peace, national solidarity and our opposition to violence against the innocent, to celebrate a highly divisive bill that legalizes the killing of the most defenseless, innocent human beings,” the petition declares.
As the petition continues to gain support, pro-life leaders across the country have spoken out against the radical new law, and many Catholic observers are calling on church leaders in the state to “excommunicate Cuomo and other pro-abortion lawmakers who claim to be Catholic while disregarding Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life and explicit condemnation of abortion.
Jon Speed, the Christian proprietor of New York bookstore The Book Scout, peacefully protested the new law by closing his store Wednesday for one “day of mourning.” He posted a message on the store’s front door stating, “We will not collect sales tax today for a tyrannical government that murders babies.”
Dr. William Lile, a board-certified OB/GYN and pro-life public speaker who maintains the ProLifeDoc website, also spoke out to lend a medical perspective to the conversation. He released a YouTube video warning of the broader implications for the character of America, and wrote a LifeSiteNews op-ed on how medical treatment in the womb demonstrates the humanity of the preborn.
For the time being, however, Cuomo is basking in the acclaim of his pro-abortion allies. The new law is part of his vow to promote “the most progressive agenda this state [has] ever seen.”