New York's attorney general says abortion rights provided by U.S. Supreme Court rulings can't be diminished by the state law against late-term abortions enacted before the court's landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says Thursday he sent that legal opinion to the state comptroller, who requested it to help in audits of state payments to health care providers.
State criminal law says abortions must be performed within 24 weeks of pregnancy or when believed needed to preserve the mother's life.
Schneiderman writes that the constitution as interpreted by the court protects late-term abortions "to protect the woman's health" and "where the fetus is not viable."
He says his opinion "eliminates any ambiguity about the consistency of our state's law with these federal constitutional rights."
© 2016 AP
