After a leaked draught revealed that the US Supreme Court might overturn Roe v. Wade, New York Governor Kathy Hochul approved legislation to safeguard abortion patients and medical personnel. The legislation’s provisions, which go into effect immediately, will insulate the practice against legal reprisal by other states.
With the Supreme Court’s final decision on an abortion ban expected soon, New York legislation allows providers and patients to file claims against anyone who attempts to bring charges against them. This is in contrast to new anti-abortion laws in some conservative states that allow private citizens to sue anyone who aids or abets an abortion.
The new legislation prohibits law enforcement from collaborating with anti-abortion states’ investigations into New York abortions, and it does not enable state courts to engage in civil or criminal litigation arising from legal abortions in New York. Hochul remarked at a press conference after signing the bill, ‘This law is just one more way we show that New York is leading and will always stand up to attacks on our bodily liberty.’
‘I refuse to go backwards.’ Make no mistake: this is not only an attack on reproductive health and freedom. It’s an attack on the basic ideas that make New York what it is. That is why, with a stroke of a pen, I will declare, ‘Not here, not in New York, not ever.’ New York, one of many liberal states likely to become a more popular destination for out-of-state abortion patients, has long been a refuge for abortion access.
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