NY lawmakers push new law guaranteeing women access to abortion if Trump Supreme Court ends Roe v. Wade

In the wake of Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election, communities across the country are fearing for the loss of various important rights.

Women — and particularly low-income women and women of color — are concerned about the impact a Trump administration could have on reproductive rights and access to reproductive health care services.

Now, two New York legislators are responding by working to change the state's abortion law to match the provisions of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, Politico reports.

Trump has promised to overturn Roe v. Wade, a 1973 Supreme Court case, which ruled that individual states could not ban or regulate abortion access in the first trimester of pregnancy, as well as the second and third if a woman's life is at risk.

In a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday night, the President-elect said any Supreme Court justice that he appointed would necessarily be pro-life and that there would no longer be a federal protection of abortion.

He said in the case that Roe is reversed, women living in states where abortion is outlawed will "have to go to another state" for the procedure.

With that in mind, state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assemblywoman Deborah Glick of New York are pushing the Legislature to pass a bill that would update the state's abortion law to match the provisions of Roe v. Wade.

Stewart-Cousins said, "With the upcoming Trump Presidency and conservative U.S. Supreme Court, the need for New York to take real steps to guarantee women's rights has never been more pressing."

Stewart-Cousins and Glick's bill, which was part of a set of bills titled the Women’s Equality Act would move the state's abortion law to a health code rather than a penal code. The state's abortion law as it is allows the procedure up to 24 weeks, and only afterward if the woman's life is at risk.

According to the language of the Women's Equality Act, "Under New York law, a woman’s health is not protected in the rare and tragic situation that a serious complication jeopardizes her health later in pregnancy; New York law only provides protection if a woman’s life is in danger."

The new bill aims to change that and amend the state's abortion provisions to match the language of the federal law.

Now more than ever is an especially important time to ensure that women have access to the basic right to reproductive health care — that includes abortion.