New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that some city-run clinics will now offer free abortion pills to ensure that all New York residents "can have access to reproductive health care."
No matter the color of their skin, their income bracket, their gender identity, or what state they come from (...) Let me be clear: abortion is and always will be legal in New York City.
During a press conference, Adams described the measure as groundbreaking and said the plan is to make New York City a more pro-choice city:
No other city in the nation, or in the world, has a public health department that is providing medication abortion. We are the first.
The four public clinics, located in Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, will now offer abortion pills at no cost.
Women's health "endangered"
Adams claimed that the city is doing more to promote abortion because of the Supreme Court ruling to reverse Roe v. Wade and leave this issue up to the states:
The Supreme Court's decision has endangered women's health across the nation. It was a decision about controlling women's bodies, their choices, and their freedom (...) This week would have marked 50 years of Roe v. Wade, but five men who can never conceive decided what will happen to women's bodies in this country.
Abortions are not decreasing
In a report, the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) indicated that 2019 was the first year in a decade that abortions did not decline in New York City, with nearly 50,000 reported. NYC's abortion rate that year was estimated to be 27.2 per 1000 women aged 15-44, about double the national rate:
Chemical abortions compose a growing percentage of all New York City abortions, increasing by 16 percent in 2019 to make up 32 percent of the total, or 16,030 abortions.
