{"id":214367,"date":"2026-04-29T18:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/214367\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T18:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:47:08","slug":"appeals-court-rules-people-cant-sue-over-forced-abortion-under-the-adult-survivors-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/214367\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court rules people can\u2019t sue over forced abortion under the Adult Survivors Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unauthorized abortions are not a type of sexual abuse a person can sue over under New York\u2019s lookback window for sexual assault, a state appeals court said Tuesday in a novel ruling<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Appellate Division, First Department ruled against Yolanda Murray, a woman whose 2023 Adult Survivors Act<\/a> suit alleged a Planned Parenthood physician gave her an abortion she didn\u2019t want in 1996 while making \u201cinappropriate comments\u201d to her, deciding that non-consensual abortion wouldn\u2019t constitute a sex offense as defined by state penal law<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe performance of an unauthorized abortion, as alleged here, is not the type of sexual misconduct the ASA and similar \u2018revival\u2019 statutes were designed to reach, even allowing for the fact, as alleged, that the provider made inappropriate comments to plaintiff while performing the procedure,\u201d the court wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York Law School<\/a> professor Heather Cucolo told amNewYork Law this was the first court to make a determination on whether a person could file an Adult Survivors Act claim over a non-consensual abortion. She called the novel decision \u201cunfortunate\u201d for Murray, who was representing herself, but \u201clogical.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cucolo said she felt the court\u2019s reading of the state\u2019s penal law was \u201creasonable,\u201d but that, because Murray alleged the physician made obscene comments about her body while carrying out the nonconsensual procedure, it could be argued the physician\u2019s conduct would\u2019ve fallen under the portion of the statute that criminalizes touching a person\u2019s intimate parts for their own gratification.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears the doctor who had performed the abortion had engaged in vulgar amusement, making some illicit statements about her private parts during that procedure,\u201d Cucolo said. \u201cIt could have potentially been a viable argument to say that this is sexualized conduct directed at an intimate body part during a moment of extreme vulnerability, without consent, maybe accompanied by coercion, since there was a claim that it was not a procedure that was wanted.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cucolo said the case may have been more successful if Murray had had the advice and representation of an attorney. However, she said, it\u2019s difficult to know for sure, as there were a few aspects of her suit where the facts are unclear. It seemed like there was a lack of clarity over whether Murray was a minor or an adult when the non-consensual abortion happened; if she\u2019d had been under 18, the claim would not have fallen under the ASA regardless.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really difficult to say whether nonconsensual abortion in and of itself \u2026 whether there\u2019d be a strong argument in this capacity under the look back window,\u201d Cucolo said. \u201cBut if we\u2019re coupling that with inappropriate sexualized comments and treatment and whatnot, there could very well be a creative argument that expands the narrow definition of [the penal law] and possibly apply it to the facts in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it was possible an attorney could have made other arguments given the very specific particulars of Murray\u2019s situation, but that it was difficult to know without having all the facts of the case.<\/p>\n

If Murray were to appeal the decision, it could be taken up by the Court of Appeals, the state\u2019s highest court.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unauthorized abortions are not a type of sexual abuse a person can sue over under New York\u2019s lookback…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11078,45052,84612,2710,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-214367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-abortion","tag-adult-survivors-act","tag-appellate-division-first-department","tag-law","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}