Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The unprecedented leaked Supreme Court draft memo foreshadowing the potential overturning of the benchmark Roe v. Wade decision is casting a cloud of uncertainty over the future of health services available to women nationwide, and in particular in many states.
If the Roe v. Wade decision were to be reversed, how would this impact health clinics and resources locally like Planned Parenthood?
"I think this decision will impact us a lot actually," said CEO and President of Planned Parenthood for Central and Western New York, Michelle Casey. "We are trying to do our best to serve the patients that we have in the areas that we have and we have been expanding access, trying to hire new staff. Right now, we could be doing better at serving the patients that we have. We want to get our wait times down. We do expect quite an influx of patients from Ohio in particular, the Mid-west and the South that will make it to New York seeking appointments when services are no longer available there, so we expect to expand services and minimize any negative impact on our current patients."
When New York State passed the Reproductive Health Act in 2019, this codified Roe v. Wade into state law. However, Democrats including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, are calling for a vote to codify abortion rights in the United States. The Women's Health Protection act was passed in the House of Representatives but not yet passed in the Senate, having been filibustered by Senate Republicans in February.
Democratic lawmakers in the New York state legislature are considering multiple amendments in response to the pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling, "We are currently looking to make a constitutional amendment that is broader than just this issue, an equality amendment, and put it in the constitution of New York State and that will require passing into legislative sessions and a ballot initiative," said Michelle Casey.
According to Casey, Planned Parenthood is trying to keep resources available and at the very least, are going to be requiring more resources to maintain the functioning of Planned Parenthood even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, "I think we struggle as a safety net provider day-to-day. We are trying to make sure we have the proper resources to serve our patients. This is going to take a lot of extra resources to take on this additional burden. We are looking to New York State in particular and also our supporters to help."
It is evident that the clinic is going to need more staff as well as an increase in equipment, "We are going to need an abortion care navigator to help people from other states to get appointments and places to stay. We are also going to need additional equipment to really make this operation run. It's thousands of visits, this would not be a small increase from what we are already doing," Casey said.