New York City bought billboards in three other states to advertise abortion services

New York City rolled out a new phone line, the Abortion Access Hub, in November. The hub would be confidential and connect callers to abortion providers within the five boroughs. It would be funded with $1 million dollars and staffed 12 hours a day, six days a week, with bilingual staff.

In the coming months, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene began advertising the hub on multiple platforms and in multiple languages. But they also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising the hub hundreds of miles away in three other states — Georgia, Florida and Texas.

 “The Dobbs decision may have been the Supreme Court’s latest attack on human rights and health care, but New York City will continue to be a safe haven for anyone seeking to access a safe, legal abortion,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams at the time.

But the press release announcing the new hub does not mention that the Department of Health would be spreading the news of this haven to other states, or which states, or why.

“This is the biggest waste of government resources since Andrew Cuomo’s trip to Savannah to lecture us on Covid,” wrote Garrison Douglas, press secretary for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, in response to an inquiry about the program.

In fulfilling an open records request for records and information about the advertisement campaign, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene was unapologetic for an potential hurt feelings by political leaders.

"In New York City, access to abortion care is legal, protected and a critical component of public health," wrote a department spokesperson in response to a list of questions from the Paste BN Network. "We want anyone who might be in need of reproductive healthcare to know that we're here to provide it."

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'Safe + Legal for All in New York City'

The advertisements all share a similar format. The topline text reads "Abortion. Safe + Legal for All in New York City." The ads point viewers to the Abortion Access Hub online or through the phone.

Internal records show the Health Department contracted for a 36-billboard campaign to run in January. Billboards were set up in Augusta, Martinez and Atlanta in Georgia, along with Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando in Florida and Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, Texas. A signed contract with Lamar for the billboards shows a total cost of $138,370 for the advertising.

At the same time, the department planned to spend $371,000 on Google and Snapchat adds to run from Jan. 3 to the end of June, bringing the total estimated cost of the out-of-state advertising more than $500,000.

All of the adds listed through Snapchat's political ad library are aimed at women. The targeted age bracket is listed as "30-". Two of the ads are targeted at Florida, Georgia and Texas while explicitly excluding surrounding states — South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. The rest are not listed as targeted to any particular state, but are excluded from a handful of states around New York state.

The Snapchat advertisements were created in both Spanish and English, and digital mockups of the billboards released through the open record request show versions in both languages.

The Department of Health spokesperson confirmed the advertisement buy through Snapchat in Florida, Georgia and Texas because those states have abortion restrictions. They also confirmed that they had not bought ads in surrounding states, including Alabama and Tennessee, where abortion has been completely banned. No further explanation was provided for why particular states were targeted.

Similar advertisements are also posted on Facebook in multiple languages, but most of these seem to have been shown largely to residents of New York and New Jersey — even versions that list the hub number "to get confidential support and referrals to abortion services, no matter where you live." The cost of each add seems to range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, according to the Facebook advertisement library.

The Snapchat advertisements and a planning document for the billboards seem to have been prepared by OpAD Media, which is listed as having at least five contracts with the Health Department, the earliest in 2012, according to NYC OpenData. The most recent contract, for nearly $250 million, was signed in August of 2022.

"It also kind of feels like a punch in the gut"

Roula AbiSamra is the state campaign director with Amplify Georgia, a collaborative of reproductive health and justice organizations. She saw the billboards herself, and had others point them out to her.

"I'm glad that information exists," community members told her. "And it also kind of feels like a punch in the gut."

Jasmine Keith, reproductive justice lead organizer with the New Georgia Project, said she had not seen the billboards but asked around and heard about the ads on Snapchat.

"I'm thankful and excited to hear about what they're trying to do here in Georgia," she said.

Both AbiSamra and Keith would prefer, though, expanded access to abortion in Georgia over information on accessing it in New York, as well as better access to healthcare in general.

"I want my rights restored here in Georgia as well, especially with ... being No. 2 in the nation for having the highest maternal mortality rate," Keith said.

Even before the Dobbs decision and Georgia's more restrictive law went into effect, many communities that already struggled accessing healthcare — low income communities, rural communities and communities of color — did not have that access, AbiSamra said.

"People who are just like working to make ends meet as it is, and young people are going to not really be served by a billboard that says, 'You can come to New York City,'" she said.

AbiSamra didn't know of any examples of local governments from outside Georgia supporting abortion access work in the state.

"It's not like the New York City Department of Health reached out to us about this," AbiSamra said. "If they did reach out to advocates on the ground in Georgia. I personally don't know about it."

AbiSamra said that NYC has made a point of allocating funds for those trying to access abortion, but also highlighted that the Atlanta Reproductive Justice Commission maintains a website that helps people navigate the legal situation of abortion in the Southeast, and can connect them to an abortion fund.

For Keith, she would also appreciate support from other states in the form of people, whether they are midwives, doctors or organizers.

"I would love for like people from other states to come here in Georgia with New Georgia Project and come help us talk about this issue in the neighborhood," she said. "Have some folks come put boots on the ground."

Travel for abortion increases — and raises legal issues

There is nothing new about people traveling to access abortion care, according to Glenn Cohen, deputy dean and professor at Harvard Law School who studies medical tourism. Prior to Roe v. Wade — and even more recently, prior to the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling from the Supreme Court in 2022 that eliminated the constitutional right to access abortion — restrictive laws caused people seeking abortion to travel, he said.

Some states, such as Massachusetts and Connecticut, have also put in place shield laws to protect doctors in those states who perform abortions for residents from other states from legal liability. But he did not know of any examples of a local government advertising itself as an abortion destination previous to New York.

Traveling out of state to get an abortion is legal currently, according to Cohen, but he thinks some states with restrictive abortion laws may begin trying to prosecute those who travel elsewhere to seek an abortion.

"In the Dobb's decision itself, (U.S. Supreme Court) Justice (Brett) Kavanaugh wrote separately to indicate that he thought that actually ... the right to travel exists in the Constitution and would protect this. I'm much less sure that he's right," he said. "This is a very murky area of law, involving the right to travel between states and also what's called the Dormant Commerce Clause, which is about the ability of states to kind of regulate interstate commerce."

David Cohen, a professor of law at Drexel University who wrote a law review article on coming jurisdictional conflicts over abortion, said that generally there are First Amendment protections for advertising. But he thinks this kind of advertising may raise legal issues, which could be complicated even further with online advertising that may not be targeted at any one location.

"Generally, this court is very favorable to First Amendment claims on behalf of businesses," he said. With abortion, though, "I think it's gonna pull the court in different directions."