The New York Senate on Tuesday afternoon passed a bill that includes the most significant expansion of abortion rights in the state in almost 50 years.

The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 38-24 to pass the Reproductive Health Act on the 46th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that states can’t ban abortion.

The state Assembly is expected to pass the bill later Tuesday, delivering it to Gov. Andrew Cuomo who plans to sign the historic measure into law tonight.

The new law updates an abortion rights bill that the New York Legislature passed in 1970, three years before the Roe v. Wade decision.

The updated state law gives women the right to an abortion after 24 weeks if a fetus is no longer viable, or if a woman’s life or health is at risk. Abortion also would be regulated in New York under public health law, instead of the existing penal law.

The changes bring New York’s law into line with the rights already guaranteed on the federal level under Roe v. Wade.

Versions of the Reproductive Health Act passed the state Assembly over the past decade, only to be blocked in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Democrats made the Reproductive Health Act a priority for this year’s legislative session after winning one-party rule in Albany in the November election. Democrats now control 39 of the Senate’s 63 seats.

Before the votes, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters why they believe it’s important to update New York’s law: If Roe v. Wade is overturned, it would likely be left to individual state laws to regulate abortion.

“We have a president who has made it very clear he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Stewart-Cousins said. “Today, here in New York, we are saying ‘no.’ Not here in New York.”

The Senate also passed bills Tuesday that prohibit employers from accessing an employee’s personal information about reproductive health, and require health insurers to provide cost-free contraceptive coverage, including emergency contraception.

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