Merle Hoffman has been providing abortions to both New Yorkers and out-of-state patients since she launched Choices Women’s Medical Center in Queens in 1971. The opening came in the brief window between when New York legalized abortion and when the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court established abortion access as a constitutional right in 1973.
In recent years, Hoffman says she has partnered with groups that help people travel from states where it’s harder to get the procedure.
“What has really happened is that there is a kind of overground railroad with safe places that patients can go,” Hoffman said.
Currently, she said, those coming from out of state only make up about 5% of her patient base. Statewide, the portion is closer to 9%, and if Roe v. Wade is overturned, “that will definitely grow”, Hoffman said. Politico published a preliminary draft of a Supreme Court opinion that suggested America’s highest judicial body wants to remove abortion rights — which would likely leave access up to states. New York politicians responded with a deluge of assurances and open invitations to non-residents in need of these health care services.
But merely ensuring a place for out-of-staters may not be enough. In Missouri, where nearly 10,000 residents traveled to neighboring states for an abortion in 2020, lawmakers have proposed a measure that would allow people to sue anyone anywhere who provides an abortion to a Missouri resident, sends abortion pills to Missouri or otherwise “aids or abets” such a pregnancy termination.
Other states that want to ban or severely restrict abortions are also likely to try to extend their reach if Roe v. Wade is overturned, predicts David Cohen, a professor at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law who specializes in the intersection of constitutional law and gender.
“Anti-abortion states are not going to settle with banning abortion within their borders,” Cohen told Gothamist. “They are going to want to stop as many abortions as possible.”
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