Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Signs Legislation to Expand Access to Reproductive Health Care

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul signed key legislation to expand access to reproductive health care across the state and solidify New York's historic standing as the nation's first Safe Harbor State. As outlined in the 2023 State of the State, the Governor signed legislation (A1060-A/S1043-A) to expand access to hormonal contraception by making it available over the counter, particularly assisting marginalized populations who may not have a primary care provider, but do have access to a local pharmacy. The Governor also signed legislation (A1395-C/S1213-B) to ensure that every student enrolled in a SUNY or CUNY college has access to medication abortion on campus.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

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

Thank you everyone. Thank you very much. It is great to be here. Appreciate that. Great to be here with so many of my friends and allies from the legislature - the real champions of women's reproductive freedom that I've worked with for a number of years now - and our advocates. And certainly, someone I'll be introducing with great fervor because she requires and deserves it, that is our Attorney General Tish James. So, we've got to call you up in a couple minutes, but thank you for being here.

Rochelle Rodney, the Director of Advocacy for the New York Birth Control Access Project. Rochelle, we appreciate you. Niharika Rao is here, the co-founder, the lead organizer of Reproductive Justice Collective. And we have some of our state senators and assemblymembers who have been proponents of finding any way we can to help create more access to reproductive rights and access to birth control.

First of all, one of our bill sponsors, Senator Toby Ann Stavisky has joined us. Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, thank you. Another one of our bill sponsors, Senator Cordell Cleare, has joined us. Assemblymember Amy Paulin, one of our bill sponsors is here. Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, one of the enlightened men in the group. Thank you. One of our bill sponsors, State Senator Lea Webb, has joined us as well. And I want to just thank you.

It's so great to look out in a crowd like this and to see the passion, the people who have taken this issue to the streets ever since we, just exactly a year ago, realized that our rights — in ways that we never would've envisioned — will be trampled on by the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

And so today is the grim anniversary of that date. The date of a shameful regression of women's rights in this country. And one year ago today, it was an unthinkable turning point when the Dobbs decision was actually leaked, and there was stunned silence among many of us. Can this really be what will happen in this great country?

There was a sense of urgency, a sense of hope that maybe this leak and the outrage that was associated with this leak would convince the Supreme Court justices that what they would be doing would be setting back something we've always cherished in this country, known as progress and the rights of women.

And the threats of a Constitutionally protected right that we'd taken for granted was actually under severe threat. And it's a right that the women of my mother's generation fought for, and that multiple generations since have come to understand as the law of the land without dispute.

But we saw what happened, that they did not listen to the pleas, the protests, the people saying, "Don't do this to the women of this country." They turned a deaf ear. And now the extremist, far-right Supreme Court literally stripped away our fundamental rights by the end of last June, putting tens of millions of lives at risk. But little did we know, that was just the beginning. They weren't done yet.

Just a few weeks ago, we saw a hardline, MAGA judge in Amarillo, Texas issue an unprecedented decree banning medication that countless women have relied upon safely to terminate pregnancies or manage miscarriages, overruling the experts, doctors, the FDA, scientists. It was an attack on abortion and ultimately an attack on democracy. That was Texas.

In Florida, a new six week ban on abortion just passed, severely inflicting intense suffering on millions of women, eliminating one of the few safe havens in the south where woman could access care. And any woman would know, six weeks? You have no idea if you're pregnant after six weeks in so many cases. You just don't know. I would be in that category.

So, I speak for every one of us here today - we are sick and tired of judges and lawmakers telling us what to do with our bodies. And if there's one thing that New Yorkers will not do — ever — is stand by when we see wrong being done. Our state has, from the beginning, fought this great fight. Abortion was legal in New York three years before the rest of the nation, before Roe v. Wade was decided. And we're going to do everything in our power to stop the backslide while expanding reproductive rights here in our state.

And I know that there are states where these battles are going to be waged, which is why I've taken action as Governor to make sure that New York remains a sanctuary for anyone seeking reproductive care, that abortion remains safe, accessible, and legal in our state.

The Dobbs decision and the aftermath were absolutely devastating, but we took that anger and turned it into action. At my direction, New York State funded $35 million immediately to help reproductive care centers and providers knowing that there'd be a lot more demand with people coming to New York as a safe haven, making sure that insurance companies in the State of New York now have to cover abortion services, that we would stockpile the medication inducing drugs like misoprostol. And we are one step closer to passing the Equal Rights Amendment, enshrining abortion rights in our Constitution.

But it's not enough. There's more to do. That's why we're here today - because we can't let the extremists on the other side know that we are stopping. We must meet this moment with tenacity and the leadership that's required. And that's why we're gathered. That's why we're going to talk about some legislation and try to be that model for other states of what we can do when the federal government and forces in Washington and other states go in a different direction, contrary to the values on which this country is founded. We'll do it differently here in New York.

In New York, we're going to continue to expand excess. Today, we're signing two bills into law to make reproductive health care more accessible to those who need it all across the state. First, we're ensuring that every single student enrolled in a SUNY or CUNY college will be able to access medication abortion, should they need it. College-aged New Yorkers are more likely to acquire abortion care than any other age group in our state, but too often, barriers stand between them and the resources they need. And think about this: a Gallup poll released today, saw it earlier this morning, found that 72 percent of college students say reproductive health is important, that the laws in the state will influence their decision whether to go to a school there. 81 percent said they'd be more likely to enroll in a state that had access to reproductive health care. That's significant. That is very significant. And so, this is what matters to college-aged students.

And with this bill, New York will be positioned to accommodate the health care needs of all of our students and the students we will be welcoming from other states. Students will be able to speak out, seek out and receive medication abortion on all the campuses, and for hundreds of thousands of young New Yorkers, this legislation will make the difference between an unwanted pregnancy and a future where they can decide what they want to do. And I commend Assemblymember Harvey Epstein and Senator Cordell Cleare for their work on this bill. Let's give them another round of applause.

And second, I'm proud that we're fulfilling a promise that I made in my State of the State address this year, passing legislation so pharmacists can dispense contraception over the counter. This will dramatically increase birth control access for every New Yorker, but especially those in rural parts of our state or where there's marginalized groups in health care deserts where they're far more likely to live next to — closer to a pharmacy than to a doctor, a health care provider. And I want to thank Senator Stavisky and Assemblymember Paulin for leading the charge on this bill in the legislature. Let's give them a round of applause.

These are landmark pieces of legislation, statements of our values as New Yorkers and, as always, when others fall short, New York will continue to step up and lead the way. Across the country, across the world, people are looking to New York for leadership during these tumultuous times. We lead with a strong belief in what is right, what is just, and what can be done to push back against the powerful forces of regression and repression that seek to strip the rights of our women.

With these bills, we're standing up, we're fighting back, and we're welcoming all in search of these freedoms. There's more to do, but it begins in rooms like this today when we sign this important legislation into law. Thank you, and let me bring up someone who's not afraid to use the power of her office, conferred upon her as the Attorney General of the State of New York. Tish James has been a champion her entire life in support of women's rights, and today she's able to join us with her reflections on what we're doing here, but also as a partner of mine as we lead the state forward in defense of women's freedoms — Attorney General Tish James.