Is women’s health so disposable?

While former President Donald Trump may have begrudgingly left office on Jan. 20, the legacy of his administration persists in a number of ugly and pernicious ways, from immigration policy to the mostly poorly managed COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, Gov. Cuomo has fashioned himself as the anti-Trump. In reality, Cuomo is allowing Trump’s harmful impact to linger on the health and lives of vulnerable communities in New York City.

Cuomo’s executive budget earlier provided $1.8 million in replacement funding for two Brooklyn sexual and reproductive health centers that needed state money because of the Trump administration’s changes to the Title X Family Planning Program. Now the governor is taking it away — but there’s still a chance to make it right.

The funding battle started in 2019, when the Trump administration instituted a gag rule on Title X funding for family planning centers. In effect, the rule bars centers and clinics that accept the funding — which primarily serve low-income women — from providing abortions, or even referring patients to abortion services. As the operator of two Title X-funded centers in Brooklyn, we at Public Health Solutions (PHS) could not in good conscience comply with a policy that required us to offer incomplete care to the thousands of patients we serve. So, we turned down the money, and very nearly closed our doors as a result.

Fortunately, at the time, Cuomo stepped in and released millions in funding that had been set aside by the state legislature to fund reproductive health programs in New York State. It was an enormous relief to rescind our closure plan, and to know we could continue serving the communities that depend on us for the most essential and intimate forms of health care.

Thanks to the state’s intervention, PHS was able to sustain these centers, not only through normal circumstances, but also throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic. Our centers are a critical — and often the only — source of reliable and affordable health care for our patients. Through the COVID-19 public health crisis, the importance of such care has been made clearer than ever before.

Unfortunately, the future of these centers is in jeopardy once again, this time on Cuomo’s watch. The state funding we relied on expires at the end of this state fiscal year on March 31. The fiscal 2022 executive budget doesn’t include the $1.8 million that had previously been allocated to our centers, plus five other New York City organizations, and has instead been shifted to a statewide program. As a result of the way the funds are allocated, we won’t receive any of the previously committed money.

This is a devastating blow that we cannot financially handle. If the funding is not restored, these centers will be forced to shut down.

As health care organizations and underserved communities continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s especially cruel and unjust to slash health care access for those who are disproportionately impacted by the virus. Nearly two-thirds of our clients live below the poverty line; more than half rely on public health insurance programs, and almost a quarter lack health insurance altogether.

Our clients also live in neighborhoods with some of the highest rates of low-birthweight births, late or no prenatal care, severe maternal morbidity, and sexually transmitted diseases, when compared to both boroughwide and citywide rates. When the state budget fails to fund solutions that address such issues, it is undoubtedly these communities who will pay the steepest price. In a state as progressive as New York, whose leaders are national voices on reproductive choice and health care access, this situation is all the more devastating.

Even as President Biden works to undo the harm perpetuated by the previous administration, the damage done on a federal level will continue to persist in the short term. We expect the Biden administration to rescind the Title X gag rule this year and to provide the funding we previously received. But that process will be slow, and vulnerable New Yorkers can’t afford to wait for federal bureaucracy to run its course. They need care now — especially during a pandemic — and the governor can solve the problem by funding the centers.

A government budget has moral consequences: how we choose to allocate every dollar comes with profound implications, both good and bad. When state funding to these centers is quietly retracted, leaders are walking back their commitment to the communities who have relied for decades on affordable, culturally competent and high-quality health care. We urge Cuomo to do the right thing: restore funding to these centers.