Speaker Heastie Statement on the Leaked Supreme Court Ruling to Overturn Roe v. Wade

Reports that the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to dismantle the rights of women and undermine nearly 50 years of precedent established by Roe v. Wade are deeply disturbing. If these reports are true, it would mark a tremendous step backward for our country and strip women of their right to control their own healthcare and basic bodily autonomy.

The Trump presidency may be over, but his malignant legacy in our government and in the Supreme Court is still present. Healthcare decisions should never be politicized, but his radical Supreme Court would seek to treat women as second-class citizens and deny them the right to their own healthcare.

The Assembly has long fought for women to have full autonomy over their healthcare decisions. In 2019, after years of resistance from a Republican Senate, we enacted the Reproductive Health Act to ensure that women in New York would be safeguarded from the horrific impacts of a decision like this. During the debate to enact this commonsense legislation, many of our colleagues across the aisle told us that such a law was not necessary – that reproductive rights were not at risk.

They were disingenuous. They were wrong. And I am thankful that we did not listen.