[3] Prior to the passage of the Reproductive Health Act (RHA), New York law banned abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy, except when necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman.

[2][non-primary source needed] The Reproductive Health Act and similar bills were proposed in the New York State Legislature beginning in 2007,[6][7][8] but such legislation was blocked by Senate Republicans for years.

[16] The celebratory lighting of One World Trade Center was criticized by conservative religious figures and politicians, including Vice President Mike Pence.

[3] It was decried by one New York Daily News columnist as an act of trolling and politicizing the memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks, to celebrate the passage of a divisive law.

State Representative Nicole Malliotakis said that removing abortion from the criminal code means that if a fetus dies as the result of an assault on a woman, there would be no prosecution.

[23] Two legislators who sponsored the act wrote an op-ed, arguing that violence resulting in a loss of pregnancy could still be prosecuted as first-degree assault.