New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) issued an opinion Wednesday that the state’s ban on abortion procedures after 24 weeks of pregnancy does not meet the standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade, reported the New York Times.

“New York law cannot criminalize what the federal Constitution protects, and thus the Penal Law should be interpreted to be consistent with the Constitution,” Schneiderman wrote to the state’s comptroller in the opinion.

New York law prohibits abortion care past 24 weeks of pregnancy unless the pregnancy needs to be terminated to save the life of the pregnant person. Schneiderman’s opinion states that abortions must legally be allowed when the fetus is no longer viable or if the pregnant person’s health is at risk.

“No state law can restrict a woman’s constitutional right to make her own reproductive health choices,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “This opinion makes crystal clear that all women have a constitutional right to an abortion, irrespective of inconsistent state law.”

Schneiderman’s opinion was praised by reproductive rights advocates, including the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and the Family Planning Advocates of New York, reported the Albany Times Union.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU, said in a statement that Schneiderman’s opinion was a “critical confirmation” of the right to terminate a pregnancy.

“The confusion caused by our state’s outdated and punitive abortion law has kept too many women from the care they need, with devastating consequences,” Lieberman said. “For patients, state agencies, hospitals and other providers there should be no further doubt that Roe v. Wade is the law of the land.”

All but seven states prohibit some abortion care after a certain point in pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute. 

Physicians in hospitals and clinics will now have the legal grounding to provide abortion care later in pregnancy. No New York physician provides later abortion care, according to reporting by the Times.

Dr. Stephen Chasen, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, told the New York Times that Schneiderman’s opinion eliminates the chilling effect that these anti-choice laws have on physicians who provide reproductive health care.

“Now we can feel comfortable that we’re not at all at risk of being prosecuted for taking care of pregnant women who are in an untenable situation, and hospitals don’t need to worry that they’re going to be caught in the middle,” Chasen said.

New York’s Democratic lawmakers have attempted to pass legislation that would amend the state’s law prohibiting abortion care after 24 weeks to include an exception “when necessary to protect a woman’s life or health.”

But those efforts repeatedly failed in part due to Republican opposition.

“Today’s opinion eliminates any ambiguity about the consistency of our state’s law with these federal constitutional rights and, as a result, removes an obstacle some New York women may encounter when trying to make their own reproductive health choices,” Schneiderman said.