ABORT Rx AND THE CITY Pill at clinics
City-run health clinics will soon be able to provide “medical abortions” with pills to terminate a pregnancy — a move critics say will turn New York into an abortion tourist mecca.
The city Department of Health and Mental Health revealed plans in a legal notice to enter into a “sole source” contract with Nixon-Shane LLC/ R&S Northeast LLC to buy 200mg mifepristone tablets — the abortion pill. Mifepristone is used with another pill, misoprostol, to abort a pregnancy within the first 11 weeks of gestation.
In the public notice, the health department said it is buying the abortion pill “to mitigate the threat to public health posed by the recent Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe vs Wade, which provided a constitutional right to abortion.”
The nation’s high court ruling said states should determine legalization or restriction of abortion.
New York state had among the strongest abortion rights and access laws in the country even before Roe v. Wade was struck down, with sweeping legislation approved in 2019. State lawmakers are now pushing for a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights.
Opponents argue the city is looking to become an abortion tourist destination and pill mill as other states limit or ban abortion.
“Abortion is the killing of an innocent human life,” said Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, which includes the Archdiocese of New York and Brooklyn-Queens Diocese.
“Abortion, unfortunately, is New York’s answer to everything concerning pregnancy. Abortion is promoted as a social good. Why won’t New York help pregnant women who wish to keep their babies bring them to term and escape poverty?”
State Conservative Party chair Gerald Kassar fumed, “This is abortion tourism. New York has gone way too extreme on abortion.”
“We respect the sanctity of life. We believe life begins at conception and government funds should not be used for abortion,” he added.
‘Commitment’
City Hall defended stockpiling and providing medical abortion pills for women who want to terminate a pregnancy.
“Mayor Adams and the Health Department have made no secret of their commitment to reproductive rights,” the Health Department said in a statement. “With New York state’s abortion protections codified, our city launched into action in support of residents from other states whose freedom of choice was once again restricted after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.”
The Health Department wouldn’t say how many abortion pills it’s buying to stock at its clinics — or how much the contract is for.
Adams signed a law passed by the City Council last year requiring the department to offer federal medicine for medication abortions, at no cost to patients, at city-run health clinics, with $1 million made available to boost abortion access.