Happy Anniversary, Reproductive Health Act!
One year ago today, on the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, New York State made a bold statement in support of reproductive freedom and passed the Reproductive Health Act (RHA). This piece of legislation codified Roe in the New York State constitution (protecting abortion access should Roe be overturned on a federal level by SCOTUS); moved abortion from the criminal code to the public health code, where it belongs; and made abortion legal in New York State after 24 weeks if the fetus is not viable or the pregnant person’s life or health is at risk. It even inspired states and cities across the country to step up and further protect abortion access in a time where it’s constantly under attack.
Though the critics of the RHA attempted to challenge the legislation, the public consensus was that this was exactly the type of action New York State should be taking to lead the way in reproductive health care access. Soon after, states and cities across the country began to follow suit. Illinois became the second state to pass its own version of the RHA. Nevada passed the Trust Nevada Women Act, which repealed medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion and did away with a law that criminalized abortion past 24 weeks. And in Maine, legislation requiring the state’s Medicaid program to cover abortion care was signed into law by newly elected Democratic governor Janet Mills.
In response to such progress in favor of abortion care access, multiple state legislatures across the country passed aggressively anti-abortion laws in attempts to eliminate abortion access entirely. We saw this happen in Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Though these challenges are part of calculated attempts by anti-abortion groups to challenge Roe v. Wade, it is important to remember that as it stands today, abortion is still 100% legal in all 50 states.
Conservative lawmakers wasted no time at all conducting their first attack on abortion care access in 2020. On January 2nd, as in two days into 2020, over 200 conservative members of Congress filed amicus briefs urging the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade in March when the first major abortion case of the newly Conservative-majority court is heard. This case is a challenge to Louisiana’s abortion ban that instated multiple unnecessary administrative hurdles to abortion access, not unlike those in Texas that were contested in the 2016 SCOTUS case Whole Women’s Health v. Hellersted. Though the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in 2016 that these hurdles were unconstitutional, anti-abortion groups are hopeful that a conservative-majority SCOTUS will rule differently.
Though reproductive rights hang in the balance for many, it is critical to honor the work being done in states like New York, Maine, Illinois, and Nevada to secure and expand our access to necessary health care. There are multiple ways to get involved, but an important one is meeting with your elected officials face to face and expressing to them just how important reproductive health care access is to you.
On February 11th, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York will participate in its first Day of Action as a newly merged affiliate to show lawmakers in Albany that reproductive health care must remain a priority in this legislative session.
To sign up to join fellow reproductive rights advocates in Albany, click here!
