The Quickie: NYC Public Hospitals Expand Abortion Access Via Telehealth
For Immediate Release: Oct. 3, 2023
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
In today’s Quickie: NYC public hospitals expand telehealth abortion access, Massachusetts AG forms reproductive justice unit, and the ADF attacks trans rights
NYC PUBLIC HOSPITALS EXPAND ABORTION ACCESS VIA TELEHEALTH: On Monday, New York City mayor Eric Adams announced that patients in New York City will be able to connect with health care providers on the phone or online to obtain abortion pills and have them mailed to their homes.
“Today marks a historic win for abortion access in New York City. When we make abortion care more accessible, we empower individuals to make the best decisions for themselves, their families and their futures,” said Wendy Stark, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York.
This is the latest effort from Mayor Adams to expand care in the city since the Dobbs decision, including making medication abortion free at the city’s health departments. It also builds on the state of New York’s measures to make abortion more accessible, such as passing legislation to protect providers.
Read more in The Guardian.
MASSACHUSETTS AG FORMS REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE UNIT: On Monday, Massachusetts attorney general Andrea Campbell launched a reproductive justice unit to expand access across the reproductive health care spectrum, including abortion access, gender affirming care and postpartum maternal health. Campbell aims to set a national example with this program and eventually work with other attorneys general to tackle national attacks on reproductive rights.
Sapna Khatri has been tapped to head up the unit. Khatri has worked extensively on reproductive justice issues and is currently a teaching fellow at the UCLA School of Law; prior to that, she focused on the intersection of reproductive justice and data privacy at the ACLU of Illinois. Her appointment marks the official launch of the unit, though Campbell’s office has been prioritizing reproductive health care since she took office earlier this year with measures such as maternal care support and a legal help hotline for abortion seekers in the state.
Read more in The Boston Globe.
NEWSFLASH — LAWYERS COMING FOR TRANS RIGHTS ARE THE GUYS BEHIND DOBBS: Yesterday, the New Yorker published a bombshell piece examining Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative Christian legal group leading the charge against reproductive freedom.
In recent years, ADF has won fourteen Supreme Court victories, including overturning Roe, blocking pandemic-related health rules, and establishing a right for businesses to deny same-sex couples services. Now, they’re turning their attention to what they call “the radical gender-identity ideology infiltrating the law.” Surprise, surprise. The same group responsible for getting our abortion rights tossed out by the Supreme Court is pushing anti-trans lawsuits.
Sarah Warbelow, the head of legal advocacy for the Human Rights Campaign, a leading LGBTQ+ rights group, told the New Yorker that A.D.F. was “hellbent on eradicating L.G.B.T.Q. people from public life.” A.D.F. is currently asking the Supreme Court to hear its defense of a Christian psychotherapist’s right to counsel children and adolescents about how to overcome same-sex attraction—a practice, which L.G.B.T. advocates call “conversion therapy,” that many states have outlawed.
Read more at The New Yorker.