Actor Scott Baio responded to New York state’s new abortion rights bill by posting a meme that replaces the heart in “I Love NY” with a bloody fetus.
“Walls are not immoral…………..full term abortions are,” the former Happy Days actor wrote.
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Baio posted the meme twice, first without his own caption, then with it.
Walls are not immoral…………..full term abortions are!!! pic.twitter.com/D8E9IZoDge
— Scott Baio (@ScottBaio) January 24, 2019
The design was credited to Hannah Grieser, who shared it on Wednesday. “Sometimes I want to react to current events by pouring out thousands of impassioned words. Other times, I think I’m better off conveying my reaction through graphic design,” she wrote.
On Tuesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo marked the 46th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade by signing the Reproductive Health Act, reports the Associated Press. The law includes the abortion rights from Roe v. Wade and other court rulings.
The new law replaced a 1970 law that only allowed abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy if the mother’s life was at risk. The new law allows late-term abortions if the mother’s health is in danger. Physician assistants can perform some abortions under the law now.
New York’s law is similar to other protections passed by nine other states, including California, Oregon and Washington in case Roe v. Wade is ever overturned.
“We have a president who has made it very, very clear that he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade,” State Senate Majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. “Today in New York we are saying ‘No. Not here in New York.’”
“Today we are taking a giant step forward in the hard-fought battle to ensure a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her own personal health, including the ability to access an abortion,” Cuomo said Tuesday, reports CNN. “With the signing of this bill, we are sending a clear message that whatever happens in Washington, women in New York will always have the fundamental right to control their own body.”
Critics of the law said the law went too far, suggesting that there will be more late-term abortions.
“We need to be honest with the public and say that this bill does not simply codify Roe v. Wade… what this bill does is expand abortion up to birth and the third trimester,” State Assembly Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said.
The New York State Catholic Conference was also critical, saying it was “not progress,” adding, “Progress will be achieved when our laws and our culture once again value and respect each unrepeatable gift of human life, from the first moment of creation to natural death.”
Baio’s tweet also came while the partial government shutdown continued. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate voted on two measures to re-open the government, and both failed. President Donald Trump has insisted that any bill that re-opens the government include money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not included it in bills passed in the House of Representatives.
Earlier this week, Pelosi said building a wall is “immoral,” which Trump mocked on Twitter.
“If Nancy Pelosi thinks that Walls are ‘immoral,’ why isn’t she requesting that we take down all of the existing Walls between the U.S. and Mexico, even the new ones just built in San Diego at their very strong urging,” Trump tweeted on Jan. 21. “Let millions of unchecked ‘strangers’ just flow into the U.S.”
Photo credit: Jesse Grant/Getty Images
