Statewide abortion access a legislative priority for liberals
Effort currently underway to address transportation barriers, insufficient provider numbers
Heather Shumaker said people in antiabortion states are already thinking of how to transport patients from their place of residence to towns outside of their commonwealths that have reproductive health clinics.
Shumaker, director of State Abortion Access for the National Women’s Law Center, said that legislators in half the states have attempted to expand abortion access. Part of that means including advanced practice clinicians to perform the procedure in addition to physicians. California already has that law in place. Maryland’s legislature considered it last week. That would increase the number of providers, which is something that has dwindled amid antiabortion violence for the last few decades. Abortion rights activists also realize they have to remove transportation barriers for poor women.
“I think we just recognize that the right to abortion, the right to birth control, rights themselves don't mean access,” Shumaker said. “And we've really seen that reality play out. Just because you theoretically can get an abortion doesn't mean that you actually have access to that.”
After the 2010 election, there were far more antiabortion bills than pro-choice ones. But that’s changing. Now it’s a far more aggressive effort by repro rights activists and lawmakers than it had been.
“It's kind of evened off at this point. In the last couple of years,” Shumaker said. “We're seeing for the most part almost as many progressive and proactive bills being introduced. I don't think as many are necessarily passing, but we're seeing the tide shift a little bit.
The California Future of Abortion Council created a series of recommendations that would improve access for residents and people in nearby areas. One of the bills they suggested would pay for transportation to and from facilities if the patient was too poor to afford travel expenses.
“I think that that's the first of its kind,” Shumaker said. “And, you know, California tends to be one of the leaders on progressive policies for abortion access. I wouldn't be surprised to see other progressive states kind of follow suit on that.”