Gov. Hochul signs law protecting NY doctors who send abortion pills out of state

Gov. Hochul on Friday signed into law a bill that provides a legal shield for licensed New York medical care providers who send abortion pills to states where abortion is banned.

Chastising lawmakers in other states who have sought to limit abortion medication access as “extremists,” Hochul said New York State would refuse to assist out-of-state authorities in the prosecution of New York telemedicine providers who prescribe abortion pills.

“You want to prosecute, penalize, sue one of our health care providers?” Hochul said at a news conference on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. “Well, we’re not going to help you.”

[ Harsh, then a haven: A look at New York’s abortion rights history ]

“You can continue hell bent down your path on continuing this radical behavior,” the governor declared. “But we will be just as hell bent on stopping you. This is New York.”

About one in two abortions in the U.S. are carried out with medication. The law emboldens New York doctors to ship pills to states with restrictive abortion rules, but providers still could face prosecution if they travel to red states.

Hochul, a Democrat, has sought to position New York as a sanctuary for reproductive rights after the Supreme Court, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, erased the constitutional right to abortion a year ago. She moved quickly to authorize the measure after the state Assembly passed it on Tuesday.

“We know this is going to ease the burden on women all across this country,” the governor said. “We’ve had patients from so far away.”

Even before the Dobbs decision, about 10% of abortions in New York were obtained by out-of-staters, according to a 2019 count by the federal government.

The law Hochul signed Friday brings New York in line with Colorado, Vermont, Massachusetts and Washington. It builds on a law the governor signed last month allowing out-of-state students at New York’s public colleges to receive abortion access regardless of the reproductive rights terrain in their home states.

And it comes as conservatives wage an unresolved court battle over the fate of mifepristone, the widely used abortion pill.

In April, a conservative federal judge in Texas issued an order intended to halt the quarter-century-old Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone.

But that order, which was flatly contradicted by a near-simultaneous court decision in Washington State, has been paused on appeal. The case is expected to be resolved by the Supreme Court.

Mifepristone is one drug in the two-part sequence typically used in pill-induced abortions.

As of March, 13 states had imposed blanket bans on abortion, according to the Society of Family Planning, a pro-abortion rights nonprofit.

“In New York State, we are not going backward,” said Sen. Shelley Mayer, the Westchester Democrat who sponsored the bill in the state Senate.

“We are fighting back, taking back our rights and our destinies and standing by our sisters in the other states who have lost that power,” she said.

Hochul said she had heard from doctors — including two who attended the bill signing — who said they planned to begin mailing pills out of state as soon the legislation became law.

“It’s bold,” the governor said. “But New Yorkers have always been bold.”

“This does not have to be limited to the great State of New York,” Hochul said, urging states that have restricted reproductive rights. “Follow us. Come to your senses. Know that these are basic rights that women in distress should not have to think about.”