New York Legislation Would Include Public Funding for Abortions

Following a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting that Roe v. Wade could be overturned, New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, is throwing her weight behind legislation that would put public funding into the hands of the state’s abortion providers.Ms. James is among the Democratic lawmakers and politicians attempting to leverage the newfound focus on abortion rights to their advantage. Republicans, meanwhile, have mostly refrained from entering the debate in a state known for its abortion rights.The legislation would create a Reproductive Freedom and Equity Program within the New York State Department of Health. If passed, it would provide $50 million in public funding for abortion providers in New York and for organizations that help women to travel to the state for abortions.“New York must lead the fight to keep abortion safe and accessible for all who seek it,” Ms. James said. “No matter what happens in the weeks to come, New York will always fight to protect our right to make decisions about our own bodies.”Nine percent of all abortion procedures performed in New York in 2019 were for people who had traveled to the state to seek care. The Guttmacher Institute, a private abortion surviellance organization, estimates that this number would rise if Roe v. Wade were overturned.“Millions who live in states hostile to abortion access will look to other states for that care,” one of the bill’s sponsors, Assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas, said. “New York must be a leader at this moment and prepare for the impending need.”Another sponsor, state Senator Cordell Cleare, echoed these statements, saying, “We will not be subject to the arbitrary whims of a politicized Supreme Court nor can we fund health care services via private fundraising.”State-level Republicans have been conspicuously silent on the subject since the Supreme Court draft opinion leaked, even as speculation swirls that the issue could become central to the 2022 election. Some Republican U.S. representatives have reacted.“This nonexistent right should never have been codified by an activist Supreme Court,” Representative Claudia Tenney said. “We must continue advocating compassionately for pro-life policies to secure the blessings of life for all, including the unborn.”“Whoever committed this leak has put the lives of every Justice in danger and must be held accountable,” Representative Chris Jacobs said. “That being said, if this ruling should prove true it would be a major win in the fight to protect vulnerable unborn life in our nation.”The Presumptive Republican gubernatorial candidate, Congressman Lee Zeldin, has said that “nothing changes in New York,” according to reporting by NY1. He has not yet issued an official statement.Many speculate that the renewed relevance of abortion as an issue in combination with Mr. Zeldin’s strong anti-abortion position could spell trouble for the Republican in the fall’s elections.According to the Guttmacher Institute, New York State provides about 12.2 percent of all abortions in the United States. In 2017, that was 105,380 abortions, a number that has been trending downward.New York has long been a destination for women seeking an abortion. In the first two years following the state’s landmark bill legalizing abortion in 1970, an estimated 60 percent of women recieving an abortion in New York were from out of state.Governor Rockefeller famously said of the law: “The wives of the Senate and the Assembly put this bill through.” Anti-abortion activists have criticized New York for its high rate of abortion compared to other states. New York has the second highest rate of abortion in the United States, at 26.3 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age (defined as women aged 15 to 44), according to the Guttmacher Institute. New Jersey is at 28 abortions per 1,000 women.The anti-abortion group abort73 claims that 26.2 percent of all preganacies in New York end in abortion — a figure calculated using CDC data. The group contends that number is higher, 31.4 percent, if calculated using privately collected Guttmacher Institute data.It sees states like New York as potential obstacles to the goal of establishing a country with no abortions, which the group argues would require “education before legislation.” Abortion policy analysts have pushed back on this position.“If anti-abortion activists were truly winning ‘hearts and minds,’ they would not need to rely on ever more extreme and coercive abortion restrictions,” two Guttmacher Institute analysts, Elizabeth Nash and Joerg Dreweke, write.Neither Governor Hochul’s office nor representatives of the New York Republican Party responded to requests for comment.

New York Legislation Would Include Public Funding for Abortions

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