If the Supreme Court finalizes its leaked draft ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in the coming weeks, New Yorkers will not have to worry about losing their existing abortion rights, which have been codified into law and touted by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
But New York abortion providers and groups that help patients with the finances and logistics of getting the procedure are preparing for the possibility that a lot more people from out of state will soon need their services.
As Hochul said on Twitter Monday night after Politico published the draft opinion: “For anyone who needs access to care, our state will welcome you with open arms.” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy pledged the same, saying his state “will not go backwards on reproductive rights.” But the tri-state area isn’t immune to anti-abortion sentiments, with a handful of introduced bills challenging the right in recent years.
New York has served as a safe haven for those unable to terminate their pregnancies closer to home since it became one of the first states to legalize abortion in 1970, three years before the seminal Supreme Court decision made the freedom to get an abortion a constitutional right. In 1992, the Casey ruling reaffirmed the core portions of Roe but opened up avenues for challenging abortions.
As other states have made concerted efforts to chip away at or ban abortion access outright in recent years, New York has again seen an uptick in patients coming from out-of-state, although they still make up a relatively small percentage of the total abortions performed.
Data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the share of abortions obtained by out-of-state residents has steadily increased in New York since record numbers of anti-abortion restrictions began rolling out about a decade ago in other states. The CDC reported in 2012 that out-of-staters accounted for 3% of New York abortions. This proportion tripled to 8.9% by 2019 — with nearly 7,000 non-residents seeking abortions in the Empire State.
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