New York has long been at the forefront of the push for abortion access. The state legalized the procedure three years before the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973. Thousands of women flooded in from other states, soon outnumbering the number of New York residents getting abortions.
Now that the court has overturned Roe, elected officials, abortion providers and reproductive health advocates are gearing up once again to help women from across the country who may consider traveling to New York for abortion care.
State lawmakers passed a series of bills aimed at protecting abortion seekers and providers this year. They directed millions in funding to efforts such as the Abortion Provider Support Fund, a new initiative overseen by the State Department of Health, and to security for reproductive health care centers.
And, after the Dobbs v. Jackson decision overturning Roe was announced, the Legislature met in a special session and passed a measure to enact the Equal Rights Amendment, which would enshrine in the state constitution the right to get an abortion and access contraception.
Most New Yorkers support the right to an abortion, which is legal in the state to the point of fetal viability; a June poll by the Siena College Research Institute found that nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers supported enhanced legal protections for abortion-seekers.
But about one-quarter of New Yorkers supported the overturning of Roe, according to the poll, and anti-abortion activists have stepped up protests in recent weeks.
Here’s a look at the abortion landscape in New York, and how it might change, as other states tighten or eliminate access to abortion.
How many abortions are performed in New York?
In 2020, there were 110,360 abortions performed in New York, representing 12 per cent of all abortions nationwide that year, according to the latest data analyzed by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
While abortions performed in New York increased by 5 per cent between 2017 and 2019, they decreased by 6 per cent between 2019 and 2020 as the state grappled with the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Guttmacher found. At least 10 per cent of clinics in New York reported that they stopped providing abortion care in 2020.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between 2015 and 2019, the share of abortions obtained in New York by out-of-state residents grew from around 5 per cent in 2015 to nearly 9 per cent in 2019, a rise that coincided with new restrictions on the procedure imposed by other states.
Access to abortion varies greatly throughout the state. New York City has a concentration of providers, but about 40 per cent of the state’s counties, which were home to about 8 per cent of its women, had no clinics that provided abortions in 2017, according to Guttmacher.
How have abortion rates changed over the years?
New York has welcomed outsiders seeking abortions for decades. Unlike other states that passed abortion reform laws in the early 1970s, New York did not require women to be residents in order to access the procedure, and set no medical or social conditions, according to a 1980 Guttmacher report.
In 1970, in the months after New York passed its law, in-state residents obtained about 41,000 abortions, compared to 48,000 by out-of-staters. Many New York women said they would have sought “clandestine procedures” if they had not been able to get safe and legal abortions, the report said.
When abortion was legalized nationally, the number of women traveling into New York for the procedure declined sharply, from 172,000 women in 1972 to 14,000 in 1979.
While the number of abortions obtained by in-state residents grew to 185,000 by 1979, it has declined significantly in recent years, reflecting a long-term nationwide trend that is often attributed to increased access to birth control.
Can New York accommodate increased demand?
As states across the South and Midwest restrict access to abortions, nearby states that allow abortions may have their capacity strained, said Elizabeth Nash, a principal policy associate at the Guttmacher Institute.
“The distances are going to grow for those who need abortion care and the number of clinics across the country is going to shrink,” she said. “So a state like New York will become more important for abortion.”
Demand could be especially high in the Southern Tier, the region that abuts the northern border of Pennsylvania, where the future of abortion access is in doubt, and because of its proximity to Ohio, where abortion is now banned after six weeks.
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Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, which has 23 clinics throughout the state, announced in a recent call that it plans to expand its services by increasing appointment availability by 20 per cent, tapping into a network of abortion providers, hiring more health care professionals and expanding access to surgical abortions into the state’s Southern Tier.
In New York City, a bill introduced by Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, D-Manhattan, would require the Health Department to provide abortion pills, which are authorized for use up to 10 weeks into pregnancy, for free in clinics and health centers, to both New Yorkers and people from out of state.
How are activists getting involved?
As elected officials move to expand access and protect abortion rights, local opponents of abortion have also been active. Religious leaders have celebrated the Supreme Court decision, and activities like prayer gatherings outside abortion clinics have continued.
“Abortion is not health care,” Joseph W. Tobin, the Roman Catholic Cardinal of Newark, said after the ruling. “It is a disastrous attempt to create a false equivalency between the taking of innocent human life and the ‘reproductive health’ of women in our society.”
But among New Yorkers who support abortion rights — thousands of whom turned out to protest the Supreme Court ruling — there has been an outpouring in recent weeks of offers to help women from states where abortion access is restricted.
Many groups are urging people who want to help to donate to abortion funds and other organizations that provide travel and logistical support to those in need, including the New York Abortion Access Fund, the Brigid Alliance and The Haven Coalition, among others.
Some groups are also helping women access abortion pills or creating programs to accompany them virtually through that process.
“We are thankfully not in this fight alone,” Joy D Calloway, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York’s interim chief executive, said in the call. “We understand our collective obligation to safeguard abortion rights in New York state.”