This sensational claim is making the rounds as part of a campaign by pro-life groups against the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act. The seven-page bill, introduced in the State Senate at the behest of former Governor Eliot Spitzer, has been in committee for the past year.

Pro-choice advocates say the bill's opponents are using scare tactics and misinformation to distract from the legislation's intent. Federal abortion protections are eroding and the proposed legislation would protect a woman's right to a safe and legal abortion if Roe v. Wade is someday overturned, say pro-choice advocates. If that does happen, individual states would decide whether to allow abortions.

Newspapers and media across the state are receiving letters to the editor and op-ed pieces from the bill's opponents. On April 10, the Democrat and Chronicle published an essay by Carol Crossed of Brighton, a board member of Democrats for Life and New Yorkers for Parental Rights.

Crossed's essay included many of the claims opponents of the bill are making. The bill, she wrote, would "compel all state-employed health-care providers, even a dentist or a podiatrist, to perform abortions; coerce Catholic health-care institutions to provide abortions, despite their moral objections," and "force all health insurance plans to pay for abortions."

The bill's language is broad and open to interpretation, Crossed said in interviews with City Newspaper. One clause says abortions must be provided by "a qualified, licensed health-care practitioner." The bill also amends penal law to strike out wording that abortions be performed only by physicians. In combination, that would let practitioners like dentists or podiatrists perform abortions, she said.

"Compel" and "coerce" are strong words, but Crossed said the bill's language doesn't protect practitioners or institutions from lawsuits if they refuse to perform an abortion.

"It compels you to do it if you know you're not protected by the law," Crossed said.

But there's no way a podiatrist, for example, could legally perform an abortion. State education law specifically limits podiatrists to treating the foot.

State education law regulates licensed professions, including doctors and health practitioners. What an individual is authorized to do is specified by his or her license. Only physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners can be licensed to perform abortions, whether surgical or pharmaceutical. Their licenses come from the state Medical Board.

Anyone who practices outside of his or her specialty or license can face professional misconduct charges. If a practitioner performs an abortion and is not licensed to do so, that would be considered "a serious physical injury to the woman" under amendments to penal law - which could lead to felony criminal charges.

Crossed and other critics of the bill oppose taking abortion out of penal law.

"It totally disregards the unborn," she said. "That's what they want to do, is take out the second person."

The proposed legislation does not override existing federal and state laws that permit individuals, institutions, and even insurers to refuse to perform or cover abortions for moral or religious reasons, say bill supporters.