New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced plans to further expand abortion access in the already extremely pro-abortion state.
The plans were announced as part of the 2023 State of the State and include expanding abortion access on the State University of New York (SUNY) and City University of New York (CUNY) campuses. The governor’s plans also include allowing pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraception and increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates for abortion.
“As other states wage war on abortion access, my message to New Yorkers is clear: Not here, not now, not ever,” Hochul said. “The women of New York will never be subjected to government-mandated pregnancies. These initiatives will further expand access to contraception and abortion services, and boost support for reproductive health providers and patients.”
Hochul wants all public colleges in the SUNY and CUNY systems to offer chemical abortions (the abortion pill) either at campus health facilities or by building relationships with abortionists to whom they can directly refer students for abortions. The governor’s office said, “This will provide students with the health care they need, while ensuring each campus can facilitate these vital services.”
New York will also join 20 other states in allowing pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraception. The governor’s office claims this will ensure “marginalized populations” receive birth control.
The abortion pill is shown to be four times more dangerous than first-trimester surgical abortion. Complications include heavy bleeding, severe cramping, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and headaches. Numerous women have experienced severe trauma after taking the abortion pill and seeing their dead child. Handing the abortion pill out on campus means women won’t be experiencing these complications and side effects at an abortion facility or even a private home setting, but instead in a shared dorm bathroom or dorm room.
Creating easy access to the abortion pill for students who don’t have easy access to transportation off campus can cause dangerous situations for students. When these same students experience emergency complications from the abortion pill, as research shows six percent of women who take the abortion pill do, they won’t have easy access to transportation to the ER either.
In addition, hormonal birth control has proven to be dangerous for certain young women. Brittany Malone and Alex Rowan were both 23-year-old recent college graduates when they died suddenly due to complications from hormonal birth control. And 15-year-old Tria Potts’ massive stroke and coma were attributed to birth control. Responsible doctors should examine women to ensure they aren’t at higher risk for these complications — but pharmacists may not. Pharmacists are not physicians.
Hochul’s plan to increase Medicaid rates is likely to increase abortions. When the government financially backs a product or service, the use of that product or service increases, and this is true for abortion. A 2017 report by the pro-abortion Reproductive Health Investors Alliance showed that the percentage of abortions paid by taxpayers in states that don’t allow Medicaid to pay for abortions was 1.5%. In states that do allow Medicaid to pay for abortions, that number was a shocking 52.2%. In addition, women who undergo government-funded abortions tend to have more abortions.
