Anti-abortion-rights states are ramping up their pursuit and punishment of abortion providers and their patients across the nation, including in states like New York where abortion is legal.
A Texas law enforcement officer, for example, used a nationwide network of license plate readers to try to track down a woman who they suspected had violated Texas’ abortion ban.
These witch hunts have become disturbingly commonplace, and they are fueled by bad actors capturing and weaponizing our personal electronic information.
As threats mount nationwide, New York must do all it can to protect our most personal medical decisions and to ensure we can get the care we need. Gov. Hochul has repeatedly promised to protect New Yorkers’ access to abortion and reproductive care, and now she must demonstrate her commitment.
All the governor needs is her pen.
The state Legislature passed three bills this year to safeguard access to abortion and gender-affirming care. The governor needs to sign them into law without further delay.
The New York Health Information Privacy Act will protect our digital health data. Getting and providing health care leaves a digital trail. It’s collected through fitness apps, phone records, search engines, period tracking apps and the many other tools that are part of our modern life.
Plenty of hostile states would love to get their hands on our data. This bill will ensure New Yorkers — not big tech companies, bad actors or government entities — have control over our intimate health information. Washington, Nevada and Connecticut have all passed similar legislation.
Second, the governor must sign legislation that would close gaps in our current shield laws and make it harder for hostile states to hunt down and punish people who seek, provide or help others access reproductive and gender-affirming care.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton demonstrated the need to close these gaps when he demanded that private entities, like the Seattle Children’s Hospital in Washington, reveal information about gender-affirming care patients and providers. At present, should such a scenario happen in New York, state law would not prevent private institutions from turning over sensitive information.
The bill would close this and other dangerous gaps in our shield laws so that people can access and provide reproductive and gender-affirming health care in New York safely, knowing our state has their backs. Twenty-two states have some form of shield laws on the books, and this bill would make New York’s among the strongest.
Finally, anyone seeking abortion or gender-affirming care in New York should be able to easily figure out where they can receive it, just as they can in Washington and Colorado. This need is more urgent as New York hospitals have canceled appointments in response to President Donald Trump’s anti-trans executive orders. Your right to care is only as good as your ability to get it. A bill awaiting the governor’s signature would let patients see whether the hospital in their area provides the care they need, while laying the groundwork for increasing access to abortion care statewide.
Gov. Hochul has long been a champion for abortion rights and access. She supported the New York Equal Rights Amendment, which enshrined the right to abortion and strengthened protections for trans people in our state constitution. She has repeatedly increased state funding for abortion and signed New York’s first shield laws.
In a speech in February, Gov. Hochul argued it is state elected leaders’ responsibility to keep New York a “place of freedom” where people can make decisions about their bodies and where medical providers won’t be threatened for doing their critical work.
She’s right. Now, as we face an all-out assault on our rights and personal lives, Gov. Hochul must live up to her own standards and sign these bills.
