On this day in New York · April 11, 1970
New York Legalizes Abortion, No Questions About Where You're From
Three years before Roe v. Wade, a one-vote scramble in Albany made New York the place in America where any woman could get a legal abortion, no residency card required.
The facts
- Assembly vote
- 76 to 73, after a 74-74 tie was broken by one switched vote
- Senate passage
- April 10, 1970
- Signed into law
- April 11, 1970, by Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller
- Took effect
- July 1, 1970, with no state residency requirement
On April 9, 1970, the New York State Assembly was deadlocked 74 to 74 on a bill to repeal the state's near-total abortion ban, two votes short of the majority it needed in the 150-member chamber. Assemblyman George Michaels of Auburn, who had voted no, stood up before the roll could close and switched his vote to yes, handing the bill a bare 76-73 win after Speaker Perry Duryea also voted for it. The Senate passed the same bill on April 10, and Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed it into law on April 11. Unlike Hawaii, which had legalized abortion earlier that year but only for its own residents, New York set no residency requirement at all, so starting July 1, 1970, women from every state with a stricter law began coming here for the procedure.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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I realize, Mr. Speaker, that I am terminating my political career, but I cannot in good conscience sit here and allow my vote to be the one that defeats this bill
Assemblyman George M. Michaels, on the Assembly floor, April 9, 1970
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
New York effectively became the country's abortion provider three years before Roe v. Wade made that a national right, and Michaels lost his Assembly seat that same year for the vote that did it.
Sources
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