The bill came in response to an expected U.S. Supreme Court decision that could overturn the landmark 1973 case, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion.
A leaked Supreme Court opinion draft of the decision has sparked national unrest and prompted Congress to intensify security for Supreme Court Justices.
“My friends, the sky is literally on the verge of falling in the next week or two and that’s why we are here today,” Gov. Hochul said in anticipation of the ruling. “The right to control our bodies is supposed to be settled by now, or so we thought.”
GONE TOO SOON: NYPD MOURNS FALLEN OFFICER AFTER FATAL CONFRONTATION, IS BIDEN'S AMERICA TO BLAME?
One New York law protects abortion providers from arrest, extradition, and legal proceedings in other states by forbidding New York state and local courts and law enforcement agencies from cooperating in most scenarios.
Under another new law, New York will watch the right of people to seek abortion care in the state.
GONE TOO SOON: NYPD MOURNS FALLEN OFFICER AFTER FATAL CONFRONTATION, IS BIDEN'S AMERICA TO BLAME?
People could file a lawsuit for unlawful meddling with their right to reproductive health care when other people or entities bring civil or criminal charges against them for seeking, accessing, or providing abortions.
RE-SHAPING THE FUTURE: TENNESSEE GOV. BILL LEE UNVEILS BOLD PLAN FOR "EDUCATION FREEDOM"
“We’ve already seen the threats of anti-abortion violence, and the climate out there is just getting more extreme every single day, and it’s only going to get worse,” Hochul said at an event in Manhattan. “So we need to be ready for that as well. So that’s what we do here in New York. We don’t talk. We act. We don’t follow. We lead. We don’t wait. We get to work.”
WATCH: TULSI GABBARD ADDRESSES WHO REALLY INFLUENCES POLICY, AND IT'S NOT BIDEN...
Hochul held the event at Cooper Union joined by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, advocates, and elected officials. The governor said “the sky is on the verge of falling” in the coming weeks should the draft ruling come to fruition.
FIVE ARRESTED IN SOUTHERN TEXAS FOR TRAFFICKING OF MILITARY-GRADE WEAPONS TO CARTEL
Hochul, New York’s first woman governor who has liberally taken on the issue in her campaign for election this year, condemned the potential decision as an extension of Republicans’ “intentional” and “unrelenting” attacks on New Yorkers’ reproductive freedoms, especially those in poor and minority communities.
DIPLOMATIC RIFT DEEPENS: NETANYAHU CANCELS TALKS WTH BIDEN AFTER UN CALLS FOR CEASEFIRE
“This is the United States of America, where freedom and liberty are supposed to mean something,” she said. “It’s the rock upon which we were founded. It’s supposed to mean something except in the eyes of some Neanderthals, who think women are not entitled to those rights.”