Author: Christine Vestal
If the U.S. Supreme Court decides in June, as expected, that all states can limit abortion to the earliest stages of pregnancy or ban the procedure altogether, hundreds of thousands of Americans will likely begin traveling to states where abortion remains legal.
In preparation, lawmakers in these states are considering bills that would remove obstacles such as waiting periods and parental notification, and some are proposing to facilitate low-income patients by covering travel costs and other practical expenses that enhance the real cost of abortion care.
Abortion providers and rights advocates are also calling on states to remove barriers to both telehealth and medication abortion, expand Medicaid coverage of the procedure, ensure patient privacy, protect providers from potential lawsuits from other states, and invest in training and facilities for abortion providers. They want to ensure an adequate number of places in the face of a likely growing wave of abortion refugees in some parts of the country.
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“If lawmakers address barriers to abortion for those in need most impacted by stringent state abortion laws, they will address barriers for everyone, no matter where they come from,” said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute of Reproductive Health, which aids and advises state decision-makers.
According to data, nearly three-quarters of people who receive abortions in the United States live in poverty Data for 2014 from the Guttmacher Institute research and abortion promotion group.
In 2019, 38% of abortion patients were Black data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. However, the percentage of black people who had abortions was much higher in Mississippi (74%), Georgia (65%), Alabama (62%), and other Southern states with strict abortion bans.
Abortion patchwork
According to Guttmacher, if the Supreme Court weakens or overturns its 1973 ruling on abortion rights, 26 states are expected to ban or severely restrict the procedure.
Abortion rights are considered long-term protected in the District of Columbia and 15 states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, which, according to Guttmacher, it guarantees the right to abortion in state law.
Two more states may soon join this list. Colorado Legislature this month passed the act which, if signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, who supports the measure, would codify abortion rights. And New Mexico, where the ancient abortion ban was in effect repealed last yearis widely expected to be the next state to include abortion rights in state law.
Lawmakers in many of these states have already experienced an influx of pregnant women from beyond their borders over the past five years, as a record number of GOP-led states have enacted increasingly stringent abortion bans. Many blue states are considering modern measures that would facilitate adapt to the even greater demand for abortion in a post-Roe environment.
Backed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who last year signed the bill Protecting the privacy of people undergoing abortions, state lawmakers have proposed more than a dozen abortion bills this session that aim to address racial and economic disparities in abortion access and enhance the state’s ability to serve both residents and visitors as quickly as possible.
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Legislation that would make it easier for residents and out-of-state people to get abortions is also moving through statehouses in a dozen other states.
“Over the past three years, starting in 2019, we have seen the most action to protect abortion rights and expand access that we have ever seen,” said Elizabeth Nash, chief policy associate at Guttmacher. “We are watching blue states respond to an onslaught of conservative state abortion bans and a staunchly anti-abortion Supreme Court. This is a direct reaction to all of this.”
California Leaders
Newsom recently signed the bill it will require private insurers and the state’s low-income health plan, Medicaid, to cover the full cost of abortion, without co-pays or deductibles.
The modern bill is one of more than a dozen bills proposed by California lawmakers this session that aims to support more equitable access to abortion care.
The package of bills, sponsored by the California Women’s Legislative Caucus and other top legislative leaders, builds on 45 recommendations to expand abortion access for state residents and those living elsewhere outlined in a December report report from the advisory council appointed by the voivode.
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“We’re talking about a haven for anyone who wants to come to California in the United States,” Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, who chairs the caucus, said in an interview state line. “But the package of bills also aims to expand access here in California and advance reproductive justice by making abortion accessible to the most marginalized members of our community.”
Outside of California, bills to expand access to abortion are being considered in more than a dozen states, representing the largest number of proposals in any legislative period in history, Nash said.
With about two months left before most legislative sessions adjourn, election-year lawmakers are pushing difficult to pass abortion access legislation. In addition to the California insurance bill, the Colorado abortion rights bill and the New Jersey abortion rights bill signed by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in January, bills have been approved in three other states.
This week, the Maryland General Assembly passed draft bill on the protection of abortionFor the first time in three decades, the Legislature has approved a measure to expand abortion access statewide, according to a press release from Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, DC.
The bill headed to Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s desk would ensure that private insurance covers the entire procedure without cost-sharing, expand Medicaid coverage of the procedure, provide $3.5 million to health care workers who want to be trained in abortion care and will enable not only physicians, but also advanced practice nurses and physician assistants to perform abortions.
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Hogan has not said whether he will sign the bill, but it has powerful support among Democratic lawmakers, who hold a veto-proof majority in the Maryland General Assembly.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf used his veto to repeatedly reject Republican efforts to restrict abortion rights. Wolf, however, will leave office in January, after serving the constitutional maximum of two or four years in office.
Wolf’s departure sparked furious competition for his vacant seat. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has promised to be a similar bulwark against GOP attacks. Currently, nine Republican Party candidates, all hostile to abortion rights, are vying for the GOP nomination in the May 17 primary election. Shapiro isn’t opposed to the Democratic nod.
In March, Washington’s Democratic governor, Jay Inslee signed the bill prohibiting the state from taking legal action against people seeking abortions and those who assist them, in order to fend off any attempts to impose an abortion ban along the lines of Texas, which calls on private citizens to sue anyone suspected of aiding or abetting an abortion.
And the Oregon Legislature approved $15 million in state funds to facilitate abortion providers purchase equipment and expand their workforce. The money also would be used to fund a hotline for patients seeking abortions in the state and to cover travel and other abortion-related expenses.
Both the Washington and Oregon measures were in response to anticipated demand from Idahoans seeking abortions after Republican lawmakers in March passed a Texas-style abortion ban that forbids the procedure after the sixth week of pregnancy, before many patients realize they are pregnant. pregnant.
Legal protection
California and Connecticut are the only states considering bills to protect resident abortion providers from lawsuits filed by officials in other states where abortion is illegal.
“It’s a big gap that other states need to fill,” David Cohen, a professor at Drexel University School of Law, said in an interview. In a soon-to-be-published article, he outlines the threats to abortion providers and steps states can take to protect them.
To protect patients, providers and anyone who helps them, Cohen suggests, states should enact laws that prevent law enforcement from cooperating with out-of-state civil or criminal investigations related to the legal provision of abortions in their states.
He and his co-authors Greer Donley and Rachel Rebouché also suggest that “states where abortion remains legal could instruct their medical boards and state malpractice insurance companies to refrain from taking any adverse action against providers who perform abortions for out-of-state patients. that are legal in the country of the service provider.”
Cohen pointed to a provision in a bill proposed in Missouri this year that would prohibit a Missouri resident from seeking an abortion in another state. He said Missouri likely won’t be the last state to try to do so.
Christine Vestal is a reporter for Stateline.org, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts, where this story first appeared. Capital-Star Editor John L. Micek contributed additional reporting.
