New York Governor Kathy Hochul has pledged to defend abortion access “with the full power of New York state government” by directing $35m towards abortion care and security as providers prepare for an influx of patients from other states following an anticipated US Supreme Court ruling to overturn constitutional protections for abortion access.
“If we’re going to guarantee the right to an abortion, we have to guarantee access to an abortion,” Governor Hochul said in a virtual address on 10 May.
The governor’s announcement comes as the state’s Attorney General Letitia James and state legislators propose creating a state fund to pay abortion providers and assist low-income and uninsured or underinsured abortion patients seeking care. Legislators intend to move forward with that legislation within the coming days.
New York is among states that have codified abortion access protected under the Roe v Wade ruling with passage of the state’s Reproductive Health Act in 2019.
The governor said that state funding through the Department of Health will direct $25m towards providers, including grants and reimbursements, while $10m will support security at clinics.
The grants will from the department’s emergency fund, which is not subject to legislative approval.
“I would consider this an emergency,” Governor Hochul said.
Anti-abortion laws and “trigger” bans designed to take effect without Roe protections will quickly or immediately outlaw abortion in 26 states, forcing patients to travel hundreds of miles or across the country to access legal care. Reproductive health research organisation the Guttmacher Institute estimates 40 million people who are or could become pregnant live in states where abortion will be made illegal.
Governor Hochul also said she supports a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine the right to abortion access in the state. That stronger level of protection would first have to pass through the state legislature before voters decide whether to approve it.
Four states and Washington DC have codified the right to abortion protections, while 12 states explicitly permit abortion care, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
The case of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization – involving a Mississippi law banning abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy – is the first major abortion rights challenge in front of the new conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
A leaked draft of an opinion in the case, written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, would overturn the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v Wade and its affirming ruling in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v Casey.
Roe affirmed a constitutional right to abortion access under the 14th Amendment without excessive government intervention, effectively overruling many state laws that banned abortion, and prohibiting states from banning the procedure before fetal viability at roughly 23 weeks of pregnancy.
Casey upheld the “essential holding” in the Roe ruling and prohibited legal constrictions that constitute an “undue burden” on abortion access.
A decision from the nation’s high court in the Dobbs case is expected in June.
