As the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments on a Mississippi anti-abortion law that could dramatically curtail the ability of women across the United States to access safe and legal abortions.
New York Attorney General Letitia James today called for the state of New York to establish a dedicated fund that would help support and provide financial resources to women across the country so that they could continue to make their own reproductive choices.
The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization today and will determine whether a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks, with very few exceptions, should be upheld. If the law is upheld, the ruling will directly limit the ability of many women in Mississippi and elsewhere to obtain abortions and will cast doubt on access to abortion for many more women, by calling into question the fundamental premise of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade.
… Attorney General James is today proposing a fund that will cover the costs for women living in these states to travel to New York, as well as cover accommodations and costs of an abortion.
Because these effects will be especially harsh in states that impose exceedingly strict limitations on abortion, Attorney General James is today proposing a fund that will cover the costs for women living in these states to travel to New York, as well as cover accommodations and costs of an abortion.
“Mississippi and other conservative-led states have declared an all-out war on women and their bodies, but New York cannot sit idly by as, one-by-one, these states try to take us backwards in time,” said Attorney General James. “For nearly 50 years, anti-choice radicals have tried to undo the progress created under Roe by stripping away a woman’s right to control her body, her choices, and her freedoms. But we’re not going to allow a woman’s right to choose to be curtailed any longer. While we remain committed to fighting Mississippi’s unconstitutional abortion ban, we must be ready to support women in Mississippi and a host of other states if this dangerous law is upheld. We, here in New York, must set up a fund to ensure that any woman, anywhere in the country, can look to New York as a safe haven that will allow them to make the reproductive health care decisions that are best for them. This won’t make things right, but it will give women nationwide one way to rest easy.”
In March 2018, the governor of Mississippi signed into law what was — at the time — the strictest abortion ban in the nation, placing a ban on abortion services after the 15th week of pregnancy, with few exceptions, not even in cases of rape or incest. Immediately after the law’s passage, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization — as the sole abortion provider in Mississippi — filed a lawsuit challenging the abortion ban and requesting a temporary restraining order. In November 2018, the district court granted summary judgment for the plaintiffs and issued a permanent injunction of the law. The court held that the state law violated women’s right to due process under the 14th Amendment, stating that Mississippi “chose to pass a law it knew was unconstitutional…to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.” After Mississippi appealed the ruling, Attorney General James and 21 other attorneys general filed an amicus brief in support of the clinic in April 2019. In December 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit struck down Mississippi’s law, which led to Mississippi’s appeal to the Supreme Court. In September 2021, Attorney General James and the coalition filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Attorney General James is today calling on New York state to set aside meaningful funding to provide abortion services, transportation, and accommodations for women seeking an abortion if they live in a state where they would no longer be able to access abortion should the Supreme Court overturn or severely undermine Roe in the current term.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, there are currently 17 states that have passed so-called abortion trigger laws, which would outlaw abortion automatically any time that Roe is overturned or that have maintained pre-Roe prohibitions on abortion. There are also at least four additional states that have imposed unconstitutional restrictions to prevent abortions, which could take effect if Roe is overturned.
“Today, as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments about a Mississippi abortion ban. We thank New York Attorney General Letitia James for calling for New York state to create abortion funding to cover both the cost of abortion care and practical support for accessing that care,” said Andrea Miller, president, National Institute for Reproductive Health Action Fund. “For decades, grassroots organizations have provided meaningful access to abortion care for all who need it, wherever they live, and whatever their income. At this moment of nationwide threat to abortion access, New York state has a moral imperative to step up to meet this growing need. With abortion access under attack as it’s never been before, a statewide abortion fund will help people across New York state and all who need to travel to New York for abortion care — from Mississippi and beyond.”
“In this moment, the country needs New York’s leadership. Half the states lie in wait to ban abortion entirely if the Supreme Court overturns Roe, and access to care in many parts of the country is already a fiction,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director, New York Civil Liberties Union. “We applaud Attorney General James for proposing a state fund to provide abortions, travel, and logistical support to help people come to New York for care. Four decades ago, and three years before the Court decided Roe, New York first opened its doors to people from across the U.S. who needed abortion care, and we are called to do so once again.”
Today’s action is just the latest in a long list of measures Attorney General James has taken to protect patients’ reproductive freedom since taking office. Last month, Attorney General James, as part of a coalition of attorneys general, filed an amicus brief in the case Whole Woman’s Health Alliance v. Rokita in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, supporting a constitutional challenge to several Indiana laws that impose burdensome restrictions on abortion providers that are not imposed on other health care providers.
In October 2021, Attorney General James, as part of a coalition of attorneys general, filed multiple amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the high court to stop Texas’ unconstitutional six-week abortion ban — Senate Bill 8 (SB 8). First, in mid-October, Attorney General James and the coalition filed an amicus brief seeking to vacate an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that let the abortion ban continue to take effect after a lower court initially blocked the law. This brief followed an earlier amicus brief Attorney General James and the coalition filed, in September 2021, in support of the U.S. Department of Justice’s initial challenge to Texas’ unconstitutional ban on abortions. Additionally, in late October 2021, Attorney General James and the coalition filed two more amicus briefs to the Supreme Court in United States of America v. State of Texas et al. and Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, calling on the court to refuse to allow Texas to evade judicial review of its blatantly unconstitutional ban by allowing challenges — brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and Texas abortion providers — to go forward.
In September 2021, Attorney General James helped score a victory when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction in the case Memphis Center for Reproductive Health v. Slatery, enjoining a Tennessee law that, among other things, banned abortions after as early as six weeks. In December 2020, Attorney General James and a coalition of attorneys general filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs’ challenge to that law.
Also, in September 2021, Attorney General James and a coalition of attorneys general filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in the case Planned Parenthood South Atlantic v. Wilson, where they urged the court to uphold a lower court’s ruling blocking South Carolina’s “fetal heartbeat” law that bans abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected and jeopardizes access to health care as a whole.
In June 2021, Attorney General James led a coalition of attorneys general in submitting testimony to the congressional record supporting the passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act. The act would protect a woman’s constitutional right to access abortion by prohibiting unnecessary restrictions — passed at the state level — that undermine the availability and safety of health care services.
In April 2021, Attorney General James secured an agreement that ended the harassing and obstructive behavior of two anti-choice protesters at a Planned Parenthood location in New York City. On numerous occasions, the two defendants threatened patients, escorts, and health center staff entering the facility. The agreement came as a result of a February 2021 lawsuit Attorney General James filed against the two anti-choice protestors for repeated violations of federal, state, and local clinic access laws.
Also, in April 2021, Attorney General James and a coalition of attorneys general filed an amicus brief supporting a group of Tennessee abortion providers in Bristol Regional Women’s Center v. Slatery, where the providers were challenging a Tennessee law requiring women seeking abortions to attend two in-person appointments with physicians no fewer than 48 hours apart before undergoing the procedure.
In February 2021, Attorney General James led a coalition of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists et al. v. FDA et al., where she encouraged an appeals court to uphold a lower court’s preliminary injunction that provided patients with safe access to medication abortions via telehealth and to extend that injunction to cover miscarriage treatment, all in an effort to minimize the risk of exposure to COVID-19. The preliminary injunction, previously issued, partly paused a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirement that forces women to appear in person in a clinical setting to receive a drug known as mifepristone for an early abortion and miscarriage treatment, making the drug readily accessible via telehealth and mail delivery for abortion patients, so as to not potentially expose those patients to COVID-19 by requiring unnecessary travel. The amicus brief followed up on three previous amicus briefs filed in this case by a coalition of states led by Attorney General James — in the U.S. District Court for the District for Maryland in June 2020, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in August 2020, and in the U.S. Supreme Court in September 2020 — asking those courts to issue or leave in effect the preliminary injunction suspending the FDA’s in-person requirements for mifepristone. The four amicus briefs also followed up on a letter Attorney General James sent, in March 2020, to both the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the FDA, requesting that the Trump Administration waive or utilize its discretion not to enforce a specific designation that dictated and subsequently impeded patients’ access to reproductive care, including medication abortions. Attorney General James called on the Trump Administration to ensure that patients across the country could more easily access this critical health care service while the pandemic left many unable to seek in-person care.
In January 2021, Attorney General James led a multistate amicus brief for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc in the case Whole Woman’s Health v. Paxton. The brief supports a lawsuit challenging a Texas law that would ban physicians from providing second-trimester abortion services, using the most common and safest procedure available for women after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Also, in January 2021, Attorney General James helped secure a victory in Little Rock Family Planning Services v. Rutledge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, after the court upheld a preliminary injunction blocking burdensome restrictions on abortions put in place by the passage of Arkansas laws. In January 2020, Attorney General James filed a multistate amicus brief in support of the last surgical abortion clinic in Arkansas as it sought to overturn the onerous restrictions on reproductive care.
In July 2020, Attorney General James scored a major nationwide win for reproductive freedom after a federal court threw out a Trump Administration rule that would have made it more difficult for patients in New York and across the nation to access abortion services under the Affordable Care Act. In January 2020, Attorney General James co-led a coalition of attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s HHS for putting forward the rule, arguing that it jeopardized the health coverage of all consumers confused by its billing practice. Attorney General James followed up on the lawsuit by filing a motion for summary judgment, in March 2020, that led to this win. In addition to litigating this matter, Attorney General James also opposed this rule by sending a letter to HHS, in April 2020, asking that the rule be withdrawn or significantly delayed, as the nation dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, and by sending another letter to HHS, in July 2020, after an interim rule did not delay the rule long enough. Following its district court loss, the Trump Administration appealed the decision. In July 2021, Attorney General James sent a letter to the Biden-Harris Administration’s HHS, voicing her support for a new, proposed rule that would protect abortion coverage for women nationwide and cancel out the 2019 Trump era rule.
In June 2020, Attorney General James helped score another major victory at the U.S. Supreme Court — in the case June Medical Services v. Gee — by helping to overturn a Louisiana law that would have required abortion providers to maintain admitting privileges at a local hospital. In December 2019, Attorney General James led a multistate amicus brief in support of a challenge by the petitioners in the case, in an effort to protect the ability of patients across the nation to maintain access to safe, legal abortions, as is their constitutional right.
In April 2020, Attorney General James led a coalition of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit — supporting the plaintiffs in Adams & Boyle, P.C., v. Slatery — as they fought to ensure patients across the state of Tennessee could continue to access abortion after executive orders in the state banned procedural abortions, using COVID-19 as an excuse.
Also, in April 2020, Attorney General James led a coalition of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit — supporting the plaintiffs in Robinson v. Marshall — as they fought to preserve access to reproductive health care after an executive order in Alabama banned nearly all abortions in the state, using the coronavirus as an excuse for the ban.
Earlier, in April 2020, Attorney General James led a coalition of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit — supporting the plaintiffs in Little Rock Family Planning Services v. Rutledge — as they fought to protect access to procedural abortions in the state of Arkansas, after the state Department of Health used an emergency health order to ban all procedural abortions in Arkansas, using COVID-19 as the reasoning for the ban.
Additionally, in April 2020, Attorney General James demanded that three health insurance companies — Aetna, MetroPlus Health, and Oscar Health — immediately provide coverage for 12-month supplies of contraceptives after the Office of the Attorney General found that these companies were refusing to comply with a New York state law requiring all health insurance companies to provide this 12-month supply — especially troublesome in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, as many New Yorkers lost their jobs and health insurance coverage, and tried to limit unnecessary trips to pharmacies. Attorney General James also sent letters to other insurers in New York, reminding them about their obligation to provide 12 months of contraceptive coverage to women under New York’s Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act.
Even earlier, in April 2020, Attorney General James led a multistate coalition in filing an amicus brief — in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, supporting the plaintiffs in Southwind Women’s Center LLC v. Stitt — as they fought to preserve access to reproductive health care for patients across the state of Oklahoma and worked to stop the state from banning almost all abortions in Oklahoma when it used the COVID-19 public health crisis as an excuse.
Prior to that, in April 2020, Attorney General James and a coalition of attorneys general filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court — in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania — supporting a lawsuit defending the contraceptive coverage and counseling requirement previously mandated by rules under the Affordable Care Act that were limited by broad religious and conscience exemptions created by the Trump Administration. The old contraceptive rules benefited more than 62 million women across the country.
At the beginning of April 2020, Attorney General James led a multistate coalition of attorneys general from around the nation in filing an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs in Planned Parenthood v. Abbott, after the state of Texas issued a directive banning nearly all abortion services in the state, using COVID-19 as an excuse.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020, Attorney General James called on the federal government and states across the country to ensure that access to safe, legal abortions would not be jeopardized or curtailed as a result of the spread of COVID-19.
In January 2020, Attorney General James and a coalition of attorneys general filed an amicus brief in the case Reproductive Health Services v. Parson, challenging the constitutionality of a recently-enacted abortion ban and other bans in the state of Missouri that, among other things, banned abortions after as early as eight weeks into pregnancy.
Earlier, in January 2020, Attorney General James successfully argued that patients in Rochester seeking to have an abortion should be able to do so without being harassed, threatened, or blocked before entering a clinic when a district court judge dismissed a lawsuit by anti-abortion activists seeking to bypass a 15-foot “buffer zone” outside a local Planned Parenthood facility. In June 2020, Attorney General James submitted a brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit defending that victory.
In November 2019, Attorney General James secured another major victory for reproductive freedom after a federal court invalidated a Trump Administration rule that would have allowed businesses and individuals to refuse to provide necessary health care on the basis of businesses’ or employees’ “religious beliefs or moral convictions.” The victory came after, in May 2019, Attorney General James led a coalition of 23 states, cities, and municipalities in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s HHS for putting forward the rule, arguing that it undermined the delivery of health care by giving health care institutions and individuals — including employers — the right to refuse care based on the providers’ own personal views and not the choices of a patient.
In October 2019, Attorney General James filed a multistate amicus brief in support of a lawsuit filed by the Jackson Women’s Health Organization against the state of Mississippi, challenging a law that would prohibit abortions after as early as six weeks of pregnancy.
In September 2019, Attorney General James led a multistate amicus brief in support of a lawsuit filed by Kentucky clinics and physicians, challenging a Kentucky law that would ban physicians from providing second-trimester abortion services, using the most common and safest procedure available for women after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In June 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the district court’s permanent injunction against the law.
Finally, in March 2019, Attorney General James co-led a coalition of 21 attorneys general in challenging the Trump Administration’s Title X family planning rule, which restricts health care providers that receive certain federal funds from counseling or making referrals for abortion. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the rule, Attorney General James co-led the coalition, in October 2020, in filing a petition that asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. Separately, in May 2020, Attorney General James and another coalition of attorneys general filed an amicus brief in a different lawsuit brought by the city of Baltimore against the Trump Administration’s Title X rule. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit struck down the rule — enjoining it in Maryland while it remained in place across the rest of the nation — after which the Trump Administration filed its own petition asking the Supreme Court to hear the case. In March 2021, the coalitions in both cases joined with the Biden-Harris Administration to ask the Supreme Court to dismiss both cases, while the Biden-Harris Administration acted to rescind and replace the rule. In May 2021, the Supreme Court entered the order to dismiss both cases, and denied efforts by additional parties to step in and defend the gag rule. At the same time, Attorney General James co-led a coalition of 23 attorneys general in sending a comment letter to HHS, applauding the agency’s proposed rule to undo the harmful, Trump era Title X “gag rule.” Then, just yesterday, Attorney General James co-led a multistate coalition of 24 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the case of Ohio v. Becerra, opposing the plaintiffs’ efforts to halt implementation of the new Biden-Harris Administration’s Title X rule promulgated in 2021.
Photo credit: Attorney General Letitia James.
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