From New York to California, many citizens promise to fight for their states to be “sanctuaries” for the hundreds of thousands of women who must have abortions each year.
From New York to California, leaders, doctors or citizens promise to “fight” so that their democratic states are “sanctuaries” guaranteeing hundreds of thousands of women each year the right to a legal and safe abortion. In the state of New York, fourth in the country (20 million inhabitants), classified on the left because of the weight of its megalopolis, politicians and health professionals had been preparing for weeks for the burial of the right to interruption. voluntary pregnancy by the Supreme Court of the United States.
And in this democratic state in the northeast, an influx of patients is now expected from conservative states in the south and center of the country, some of which immediately banned abortion on their soil on Friday. “We know that the needs will skyrocket,” said Sarah Moeller, a health professional with the Brigid Alliance association, which pays for travel, board and lodging and financially supports women of modest means who have to perform an abortion.
Her association helps a hundred women each month and Ms. Moeller now estimates that “hundreds of thousands more people will have to travel outside their states for health care related to an abortion”.
300,000 abortions per year
Alice Mark, doctor and adviser to the National Federation for Abortion in Massachusetts also wonders “what will happen to all these people in the 26 states where abortion will be partially or totally banned”. There are currently, according to her, 300,000 abortions per year in all these conservative states such as Louisiana, Missouri or Oklahoma.
As in Massachusetts – even though its governor is a Republican and abortion is expensive there – Ms Mark hopes that “states such as Illinois” will make their clinics more accessible by hiring more staff and opening night and day. weekend.
Upon the shock announcement of the Supreme Court’s decision, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul was the first politician to denounce a “rollback of the rights of millions of American women” and promised to “invest 35 million dollars to facilitate access to health services for abortion”.
“Our state will always be a sanctuary for those seeking to perform an abortion,” assured the elected Democrat who took part Friday evening in a demonstration of thousands of angry people in Manhattan. “It’s insane! We have gone back 100 years (…) It is insane that we have to continue to fight for this”, thus insurgent Brandy Michaud.
In Brooklyn on Friday morning, several women interviewed by AFP had already expressed their “sadness” and their “anger”. But if Lili Bernstein, 21, wondered about her desire to “be part of this country”, Nabila Valentin, 36, said on the contrary “happy to live in the State of New York where (she ) (s)he feels safe and (his) rights are protected”.
On the other side of America, the governors of three “progressive” West Coast states – Gavin Newsom in California, Kate Brown in Oregon and Jay Inslee for Washington State – “committed” in a statement common to “advocate for access to contraceptive health care, including abortion”.
33 million women affected
They regretted that “in more than half of the country – that is 33.6 million women (10% of the American population, editor’s note) – abortion (is) henceforth illegal or inaccessible”. The three states must release $152 million in aid. Community and religious associations also campaign for the right to abortion.
Like the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), based in the federal capital Washington, which created a “Jewish fund for access to abortion in partnership with the national federation for the abortion,” its president Sheila Katz told AFP. She too is counting on the Democratic states of the northeast to be “sanctuaries” for women: because “the urgency is to help people get in touch for access to abortion”. Ms. Katz promises to “continue to (fight) so that everyone can make their own decision, in conscience, about their body, their life, their future. Whoever she is and wherever she lives.