The Fight for Reproductive Rights and Transportation Access
Transportation Alternatives is dedicated to defending people’s right to access public space, to travel safely from place to place, and to use our streets as a route to care for themselves and their families — whether that is a safe commute to work, a weekend space to play, or an accessible path to medical care, including abortion.
While the right to safe abortion is enshrined in New York State law, and we recognize the privilege to live and work in this state, the overturning of Roe v. Wade today is not without intersections to our mission. Limiting abortion access will force people to travel further to access abortion and the transportation challenges built into the American landscape — the dominance of automobile travel, the lack of public transit — will only compound the problem. The racist planning policies and economic inequities that already decide who lives and dies on our roads will be made worse by this decision, just as this decision will have the most devastating consequences on disabled people and the Black, Latino, Indigenous, and immigrant communities that already face the greatest barriers to healthcare access.
Abortion access is an issue that every transportation advocate should be concerned with. Consider people in Louisiana, for whom one-way travel to the nearest abortion provider will increase on average by 1,720 percent; or people in Texas, for whom required travel will grow more than 3,000 percent, as documented recently by Kea Wilson at Streetsblog USA. These distances come with unseen costs: time, money, and risk of death on the road.
Already these states have traffic fatality rates significantly above the national average and invest less in public transit. More people traveling long distances on these states’ dangerous roads will only exacerbate the current traffic death crisis at a time when countless pregnant people are facing a concurrent health crisis.
Every person in this country deserves safe access to safe healthcare, including abortion. We join in solidarity with people across the U.S. in the fight for care and for safe access to it, in all forms.
Tonight, Friday June 24, join New Yorkers in Washington Square Park at 6:30PM in expressing your rage at the Supreme Court’s decision and demanding abortion access nationwide. Or, join in community and care at 8PM in Union Square.
Here are other ways to make a difference:
Donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds.
Lookup and support abortion funds in any state. You can start here at home by donating to the NY Abortion Access Fund.
Volunteer with the Haven Coalition to support people traveling to New York City for abortions.