The Future of Abortion Access Could be This Country’s Next Public Health Crisis
By Joy D. Calloway, Interim President & CEO, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York Action Fund
January marks the anniversary of two important dates in reproductive health, rights, and justice history. This year is the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that gave us the constitutional right to abortion, and the 4th anniversary of New York State’s Reproductive Health Act (RHA), which expanded abortion rights, decriminalized abortion and eliminated several restrictions on abortion in our state. We cannot acknowledge these critical, historic wins without examining the unrelenting threats to our reproductive freedom that we face today, in 2022.
Two years into the Covid-19 public health crisis, we have the power to stop another devastating health catastrophe in the making — the eradication of our abortion rights. We need meaningful, direct action immediately to expand and protect reproductive health access. With the start of the state legislative session and the most progressive and diverse city council in NYC history, now is the time for elected leaders at every level to take meaningful direct action to advance access to abortion. This must include statewide funding for sexual and reproductive health and passing the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) in Congress. This critical legislation would guarantee the right to abortion throughout the United States and guard against the medically unnecessary abortion restrictions being pushed forward by state politicians by establishing a statutory right to provide and receive abortion care.
Here in New York, we’re seeing the harmful impacts of restrictive abortion laws like Texas’s S.B. 8. — a law that forces people to carry unintended pregnancies to term and deputizes strangers with the right to take legal action against a person’s support system. No one should have to travel from Houston, Texas to a Planned Parenthood health center off of Houston Street to access safe, legal abortion. However, that is the sad reality we are facing.
Today, nearly 90% of American counties are without a single abortion provider, and 27 cities have become “abortion deserts” because people who live there must travel 100 miles or more to reach a provider. These attacks most harm the same people who have always faced systemic barriers to health care — Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities, the LGBTQ+ community, young people, those living in rural communities, people with disabilities, and people with low incomes.
New York passed the Reproductive Health Act in 2019 because abortion rights champions know that Roe has always been the floor, not the ceiling. States like New York have long been leaders in the fight for reproductive freedom, but we must work to ensure that every person, regardless of zip code, has access to the care they need. Thanks to RHA, abortion will still be legal in New York regardless of what happens at the Supreme Court. It’s up to us to ensure abortion is truly accessible to every New Yorker and people across the country who one day will have to turn to us for compassionate, non-judgmental care.
Now with Texas’s unconstitutional abortion ban in effect and the future of Roe in the hands of a conservative Supreme Court, it is time for New York to elevate its abortion protection policies. Our lives, freedoms, and futures are on the line.
