Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul is a Guest on MSNBC’s Morning Joe

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss women’s reproductive health rights.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Mika Brzezinski, Morning Joe: Joining us, one of those governors, Kathy Hochul, Democrat of New York. Also with us, the co-host of MSNBC's The Weekend, Symone Sanders-Townsend.

Governor, we're going to get to the mifepristone story in just a moment, and what else is happening with that, but first I want to ask you about the bridge collapse in Baltimore. Have you had any contact with state officials in Maryland? Just your reaction.

Governor Hochul: Yes, I reached out to the Governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, who's a good friend and offered any assistance from the State of New York. He expressed his gratitude. I said, we're sending our prayers to everyone involved. And you think about the vulnerability of construction workers, we do everything we can in our states to protect these workers, but an incident like this puts them in such harm's way.

So, for the families and all the individuals affected and the long-term effects of this, the New York Harbor stands ready to assist any way we can continue the flow of commerce, so it's not disrupted. We have over 66 bridges in our harbor area, so we know the vulnerability of what can happen when one is down. So, we're there to help the people of Maryland. I offered this to the Governor just a short time ago.

Mika Brzezinski, Morning Joe: Okay, appreciate that. Of course, we're following this breaking news story and we'll bring news new developments. And as the Governor pointed out, there is a lot of concern about the construction workers who were on the bridge at the time of the collapse.

The video showing the collapse happened in dramatic fashions, and there were literally seconds before much of the bridge was submerged. Again, this is Baltimore Harbor right now, live. And this is the moment in which the cargo ship slammed into part of the bridge. And you can see the construction area there. All of it. Just completely going down into the water. We know of one person who is in the hospital and there's now a search for others, vehicles that are submerged in the water, and again, those construction workers.

Governor Hochul, I now want to continue about the Supreme Court oral arguments that we're hearing today about the abortion medication, Mifepristone. What can you tell us about what drugs New York might be stockpiling to protect a woman's ability to choose to use a type of drug like this in the case that she might need it?

Governor Hochul: Well, I'll tell you this. Last year, right around this time when we first received word that not only the Dobbs decision taking away the women's right to have a surgical abortion, many women turned to the alternative. In fact, now two-thirds of all abortions in the United States are by medication abortion. So, of course, these extremists now go after this. What we did in New York a year ago was to start stockpiling 150,000 doses of medication abortion so it's available. We also protect our doctors because our doctors are protected by a SHIELD law if they want to prescribe to women in other states.

We will protect them if they use telehealth services. So, we want to make sure that women's access to reproductive freedom is not hampered. But the hypocrisy of these judges, and if the Supreme Court doesn't overturn the decision of an unmedically trained judge in Texas, we need to understand that this is not just going to affect the red States. This is something that I will not be able to stop. I can have all the freedoms we want for surgical abortions in the State of New York, and we do, and we'll protect them. But if they outlaw the most commonly used form of this prescription, approved by the FDA, a trusted source that has been approving medications and prescriptions for dozens and dozens of years, then I can't offer this in our state.

I've stockpiled, but think about the effect it will have all across America on women. And this a bridge too far – speaking of bridges today.

Mika Brzezinski, Morning Joe: So, Governor, you get it. Simone, you get it. I get it. In fact, on Morning Mika, we were talking about Eva Burch, State Senator who needed an abortion because she had fetal abnormalities that would cause a miscarriage. And it seems as more vivid and more clear as the need for abortion medication and abortion procedures becomes, it just seems like those who are in power making decisions like this, they seem to become dumber. I mean, how – what more does one need to say to explain that this is part of a healthcare choice that women need in order to live, survive, not have trauma, not have mental health issues, and also not have perhaps a fetus that goes to term and then dies? A suffering.

Symone Sanders-Townsend, MSNBC: I mean, Mika, that's why the stories I believe are so important. State Senator Burch in Arizona went to the floor to tell her story and essentially educate her colleagues because she said there were many people that didn't really realize – her colleagues realized how a woman's body worked or why one would need an abortion.

If you look at the map that's on the screen right now, folks, the abortion restrictions and the bans cover most of this country. So, Governor Hochul, when we're having this conversation and we're looking at this map, it is States like New York State that are not just, you know, protecting abortion access, health care access for the folks who live in New York, but also for people that decide to travel in. Talk about, I know there was a bill at the top of the year that was passed by the New York State Legislature that also protected, guarded against some of these travel bans that other States have put in place to restrict access for folks who potentially travel to New York to receive healthcare services that are an abortion.

Governor Hochul: New York State is a safe harbor. This is what I announced right after the Dobbs decision. I announced $35 million to beef up the services here in New York, knowing that we'd be the place for freedom refugees. These are women seeking freedom – freedom over their own body. And so, we're going to continue supporting them. But as I mentioned, it's one thing to provide abortion services, but if they outlaw the distribution of mifepristone as a result of the Supreme Court decision, which we'll hear about in June, if they go that far then what options do I have? I have 150,000 doses stockpiled, but it should not come to this. And we are becoming now a state of haves and have nots.

Some states have freedom, some do not, based on your governor. But if this Supreme Court listens to this judge in Amarillo, Texas, of all places, to dictate to all of us that our freedoms that we fought for decades and decades are gone. I'm going to tell you this – don't underestimate the rage of women in this country. They will march, they will take to the streets, they will protest, and there will be electoral consequences because Donald Trump appointed 243 federal judges of which one of them, this judge in Texas was in the Supreme Court. There will be a rebellion against this oppression of women in this country in this next election, and Republicans are going to suffer the consequences of what they've done.

Willie Geist, Morning Joe: And we will hear those oral arguments coming up in just a couple of hours. We'll hear those live here on MSNBC and taking a step even further back, this would be quite a precedent to say that a regional judge somewhere, a state judge could override the authority of the FDA on any drug. Now, now pick your list of drugs. New York. Governor Kathy Hochul. Governor, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.