Tompkins Weekly

Ithaca, county work to protect abortion rights after Roe overturn

Ithaca becomes sanctuary city; county pushes for similar measure


Attendees of the Ithaca Bans Off Our Bodies Rally, held May 14 on the Ithaca Commons, chant along with one of the rally’s speakers. The rally was held in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft majority opinion that indicated the court’s intention to strike down the landmark 1973 abortion rights case Roe v. Wade, which it later did in June. Photo by Jessica Wickham.

Back in May, Tompkins Weekly covered the local backlash to the U.S. Supreme Court’s leaked draft decision indicating its intention to overturn abortion rights cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (tinyurl.com/2aaaug3f). Just a month later, the court followed through, officially overturning both cases and putting the right to regulate abortions in the hands of the states.

In our previous coverage, sources predicted that Roe’s overturn could lead to out-of-state individuals coming to New York, including Tompkins County, to seek an abortion or other reproductive care. In the time since, both city of Ithaca and Tompkins County administrations — as well as state government — have undertaken measures to protect people should that prediction become reality.

We spoke with some of the local leaders behind the city’s and county’s work regarding reproductive health to discuss what’s being done and what residents can expect moving forward.

City of Ithaca

On July 6, a unanimous vote at Common Council officially declared Ithaca a sanctuary city for abortions, the result of an effort that began soon after the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion became public.

The legislation, introduced by Alderperson Robert Cantelmo, prohibits the use of city resources “from cooperating with out-of-state investigations into persons performing or receiving an abortion in New York state, where abortion remains legal,” as Cantelmo told Common Council at its July 6 meeting (full recording at tinyurl.com/28w5oude). It also prohibits detaining those who travel to Ithaca to obtain an abortion from a state where such practice is illegal.

City of Ithaca Alderperson Robert Cantelmo introduced legislation to make Ithaca a sanctuary city for abortions in the wake of the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion indicating the likely overturn of Roe v. Wade. The legislation passed unanimously in Common Council at its July 6 meeting. Photo provided.

The ordinance is an amendment to the city’s “Human Rights Protection” section of the municipal code and adds a new article for the “Protection of Reproductive Rights,” effective immediately.

In an interview with Tompkins Weekly, Cantelmo described his motivation for introducing the legislation.

“Certainly one of the biggest drivers for me was the fact that not only … have we seen a historic rollback of human rights, but we’ve also seen in some of the more conservative state legislatures around the country a zealous effort to criminalize abortion care within their jurisdictions and, in some cases, attempt to introduce this overreach, to prosecute people for receiving their reproductive health care in other states,” he said. “I thought this would be a way to help those coming to this community and needing to make tough decisions to, at least, provide some protection.”

Cantelmo added that due to Ithaca’s location close to the state’s southern border, it could swiftly become a destination for abortion seekers, hence his urgency to get the measure passed.

“It’s really important to send the safe harbor signals, not just to the people who already live here, but people who might live here or may need to come here,” he said. “We want to let people know that this is a safe community for them to seek that out.”

Since the legislation passed Common Council, Cantelmo said that the public reaction to it has overall been positive, with county residents, state leaders and out-of-state leaders voicing support for the measure.

Tompkins County

Just as the city of Ithaca moved quickly to protect reproductive rights after Roe’s overturn, county administration is undertaking a similar effort. The county is currently considering a resolution being spearheaded by the five women on the County Legislature — Deborah Dawson, Shawna Black, Amanda Champion, Anne Koreman and Veronica Pillar.

The resolution, drafted by Dawson, would introduce several measures regarding reproductive rights, including that the Legislature urges the prompt passage and adoption of New York State Assembly Bill A10148A and New York State Senate Bill S9078 and expresses its appreciation for passage of State Senate Bill S51002 and support for further progress toward a state constitutional amendment enshrining the right to reproductive health care.

Other measures include that county departments, officers, employees and agents will not abridge or interfere with a person’s right to access legal surgical or medication abortion services within the county nor will they honor any request from an out-of-state individual, organization or government agency for information that would identify anyone who travels to the county for such services.

As of the writing of this article, the resolution has yet to be considered by the full Legislature. Dawson said last week the Legislature plans to discuss it at its Aug. 2 meeting.

The state legislation mentioned in the county’s resolution addresses various aspects of reproductive health care: A10148A (tinyurl.com/26fn8dp4) and S9078 (tinyurl.com/23hlo2fc) would enact the reproductive freedom and equity program, and S51002 (tinyurl.com/2yuf5qqn) includes an amendment to section 11 of article 1 of the State Constitution, in relation to equal protection, to include the codification of people’s civil rights, including reproductive health care.

State Assemblyperson Anna Kelles, one of the biggest advocates behind these state measures, explained what the package of bills means for the state.

“It actually, in effect, creates New York state as a sanctuary because, as a package, it legally protects providers from any legal ramifications from other states for treating people who come from other states to New York to get reproductive rights services,” she said. “There was funding set aside by the governor that will go to reproductive rights clinics to support an added workload and burden on their credit. So, we as a state are systematically creating New York as a stronghold and a safe place for … everyone’s reproductive rights.”

Dawson explained that she and her fellow legislators recognized the importance of these state moves, especially amending the State Constitution, and thus want to formally announce their support.

“We don’t just need laws,” she said. “It’s great that the city has a law. I think it’s great that the county may pass this resolution. I think it’s terrific that the city and state are passing laws to safeguard abortion access, but we need a state constitutional amendment so that we can be sure that these protections are preserved going into the future, no matter what happens to the political makeup of our state government.”

Dawson added that the county’s effort is a resolution, in contrast to the city’s code amendment, because she’s “not aware of a part of the county code that we could tweak to pass a law the way the city did” and, more importantly, changing a law like that would require a public hearing and/or referendum.

“It just seems that it’s simpler and clearer and quicker to me to just put these resolves in a resolution,” she said.

Black said that while the county’s effort isn’t exactly the same as the city’s, legislators still wanted to “make sure that the resolution is something that, as a county, we could deliver on and it wasn’t just a feel-good resolution that has no meaning or new action.”

“We also looked at Seattle’s model, and Oakland also passed a resolution that’s very similar,” she said. “That doesn’t necessarily guarantee a sanctuary city or county. But instead, it reiterates the need for protection in the Constitution, and specifically the State Constitution, for women’s rights for health care and for abortion. So, it’s going down a little bit of a different path than the city’s going down.”

Celeste Rakovich (left), senior community health nurse on the Tompkins County Health Department’s Community Health Services team, and her colleague, Community Health Services Director Claire Espey, are working to better educate residents on the reproductive resources available to them following the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade last month. Photos by Sheryl Sinkow Photography.

As the Legislature considers its resolution, other county groups are doing what they can to address reproductive rights. The Tompkins County Health Department, for example, has been working diligently to educate county residents and leaders in the wake of Roe’s overturn.

“In our coordination meetings with other service providers, we’re trying to share available resources with each other and certainly making it a priority to coordinate and share information with our clients,” said Community Health Services Director Claire Espey. “And, in our efforts to do that, we put a link to an additional set of reproductive health resources right on our website at Community Health Services. So, we have a copy of the law, which protects the rights of patients and reproductive health care providers. And we also included some information on local health centers that can [provide reproductive care], for example, Planned Parenthood.”

Celeste Rakovich, senior community health nurse on the Tompkins County Health Department’s Community Health Services team (tompkinscountyny.gov/health/chs), said that she and others are “reminding people in the community that abortion is health care” and that “ensuring safe access and accurate information are important.” Rakovich explained some of the programs the Health Department has regarding reproductive health.

“We have a Moms PLUS+ program, which is a home visiting nurse program that provides maternal child health supportive services free of cost to residents of Tompkins County, regardless of their insurance status,” she said. “And we are sure to partner with other organizations in the community to make sure that those family planning needs are met. We also have a client-centered approach at all of our visits and all our programs by delivering gender-affirming care, harm-reductive approaches and trauma-informed care to all participants.”

In addition, the Health Department is starting a new program called Perinatal and Infant Community Health Collaborative Services, intended “to improve perinatal and infant health outcomes and eliminate racial, ethnic and economic disparities in those outcomes,” Rakovich said. To learn more about this program, visit tinyurl.com/23vqav4l.

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to them at editorial@VizellaMedia.com.

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