"We know what happens when women are unable to control their own bodies and make their own choices and we will not go back to those dark times," James said.
"New York must lead the fight to keep abortion safe and accessible for all who seek it and this legislation spearheaded by State Senator Cleare and Assemblymember González-Rojas will ensure that low-income New Yorkers and people from states that ban abortion have access to the care they need and deserve."
James asserted that no matter what happens in the future, her state "will always fight to protect our right to make decisions about our own bodies and expand access to this critical and lifesaving care."
Last week, in a leaked draft opinion from the US Supreme Court, the justices voted to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that "protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction."
The Reproductive Freedom and Equity Program will support the fundamental right to an abortion by directing money to abortion providers and nonprofits to help strengthen access to care; provide cash for uncompensated and uninsured abortion care; and offer resources to assist the needs of women seeking abortion care.
James said that as states have passed laws restricting access to abortion, the number of women traveling to New York seeking abortion care has grown. In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, 9% or 7,000 of the abortion procedures performed in New York were for people from out of state. And the Guttmacher Institute notes that the number is likely to increase to more than 32,000 procedures a year from women traveling only from Pennsylvania and Ohio to New York.
At the moment, 22 states have laws or constitutional amendments that will ban abortions if Roe is overturned or weakened. And four other states will likely ban abortion if federal protections disappear. More than 40 million women of reproductive age live in these 26 states.