How New York protects your right to reproductive health care

Access to abortion 

People of all ages have the absolute right to abortion through the 24th week of pregnancy.   

After 24 weeks, abortion is permitted if your medical provider decides your fetus is not viable or your life, physical health, or mental health is at risk.   

If you are a minor in New York, you do not need your parents’ permission to get birth control, abortion, prenatal care, or other reproductive health services.  

Confidentiality  

Health care providers generally cannot share medical records or information about reproductive health care services — including abortion, birth control, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases — with your partner, parents, guardians, or anyone else without your permission.   

Your employer cannot access personal information about your or your partner’s reproductive-health decisions.  

Insurance coverage  

New York requires Medicaid and all state-regulated private health insurance plans to cover abortions.  

Any state-regulated private health insurance plan that offers maternity coverage must provide coverage for abortion without cost sharing.   

Plans must also provide a 12-month supply of all FDA-approved contraceptives without cost sharing.

Clinic access 

As a patient or staff member accessing or providing reproductive health care, you have the right to be free from violence, threats of force, or physical obstruction.  

These protections apply at any doctor’s office, hospital, or clinic that provides information, referrals, counseling, or medical services about human reproduction. This includes family planning, abortion, and gender-affirming care. Illegal acts can include: 

• acts of violence, like hitting or shoving
• written or verbal threats of force
• physically obstructing facilities, such as blocking doorways or driveways
• actions that threaten your ability to get care, such as stopping traffic, as you try to enter or leave a facility, or refusing to leave a waiting room

Discrimination  

Your employer, or an employer considering hiring you, cannot discriminate against you based on your reproductive health decisions.  In New York, no one can threaten, hurt, or intimidate you, or interfere with your decision because you have an abortion, plan to have an abortion, or use any other reproductive health service. 

Beware of  fake “abortion clinics”  

Sometimes called crisis pregnancy centers or limited-service pregnancy centers, these are not abortion clinics. These are places that try to prevent people from having abortions — sometimes even from using contraception. They typically:

• run ads asking if you are “pregnant, scared, and need help”  
• make abortion sound very dangerous or inaccurately claim medication abortion can be “reversed”
• do not offer abortion counseling or referrals, even if they claim to 
• are often located near or look like real abortion clinics

Most of these facilities are not health care providers and are not subject to the same privacy laws as medical facilities. Many are connected with organizations that oppose abortion, contraception, and education about reproductive health.  

Before doing anything at a facility or sharing any personal information, ask whether abortion services are available. If staff don’t directly answer or give you a vague answer, you may be at a fake abortion facility. 

If you accidentally go to one of these facilities, the staff will likely try to talk you out of having an abortion. You are free to leave. You can find a real abortion provider through the resources listed in this brochure.