New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order Monday to safeguard abortions and contraceptive coverage in the state, amid concern that President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee would seek to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that made abortion legal nationwide.
The executive order updates Department of Financial Services and Department of Health regulations to require insurers cover emergency contraception, and allows women to obtain 12-month supplies of contraceptives at once without co-insurance, co-pays, or deductibles.
The order also requires that voluntary sterilization and over-the-counter contraceptives be covered without cost-sharing.
Cuomo said the order “protects a woman’s right to choose, protects a woman’s right to contraceptive care – no insurance company can deny it, no bureaucracy can deny it and no federal agency can deny it.”
The executive order came before Trump announced Monday evening he would nominate Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Cuomo warned that Trump’s selection would attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade as part of Trump’s vision to “take us back to the dark days … before women had the constitutional legal protection to control their own bodies.”
“Mark my words, they are moving to roll back Roe v. Wade. That is going to be the next move by this president,” Cuomo said Monday.
Abortion rights groups condemned Trump’s selection of Kavanaugh, echoing concerns that he would overturn Roe v. Wade.
“We already know how Brett Kavanaugh would rule on Roe v. Wade, because the president told us so,” said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in a statement.
Planned Parenthood also noted that Kavanaugh blocked a lower court’s order to require that the Trump administration permit an undocumented woman in the U.S. from receiving an abortion.
But Kavanaugh said after he was announced as Trump’s pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy that he would maintain an “open mind” on cases if he became the next Supreme Court justice.
“If confirmed by the Senate, I will keep an open mind in every case,” Kavanaugh said Monday at the White House.
Kavanaugh is the second Supreme Court justice Trump has nominated. Neil Gorsuch was Trump’s first pick; he was confirmed to the seat left by the late Antonin Scalia.
