Deliberate Parenthood of Higher New York (PPGNY) is dealing with a monetary disaster as a result of Medicaid underfunding. The group is tens of millions of {dollars} brief yearly and urgently wants private and non-private funding to proceed its vital companies.
Photograph through Getty Pictures
Deliberate Parenthood of Higher New York (PPGNY) is dealing with a monetary disaster as a result of Medicaid underfunding. The group is tens of millions of {dollars} brief yearly and urgently wants private and non-private funding to proceed its vital companies.
PPGNY has lengthy partnered with the New York Metropolis Council, which has traditionally backed its work throughout the 5 boroughs. Now, the group is looking on the Council for extra assist, requesting an enlargement of $2.5 million to assist shut its finances hole and preserve look after practically 7,500 New Yorkers.
The funding request, introduced at a Metropolis Council listening to on March 24, features a $1.25 million enlargement of the Sexual and Reproductive Well being Initiative and an extra $1.25 million allocation via Audio system’ Listing Funding. PPGNY’s attraction to the Council is a part of a broader push for monetary aid, together with a plea for elevated grant funding within the New York State finances for the upcoming fiscal yr.
“The state of sexual and reproductive care is at a breaking point – even here in New York,” stated Dipal Shah, chief exterior affairs officer of Deliberate Parenthood of Higher New York. “Longstanding under-investment in reproductive health care, combined with soaring health care costs, workforce shortages, the havoc wreaked by the COVID pandemic, and care restrictions imposed in the wake of the Dobbs decision are limiting care access today.”
A protester in assist of girls’s reproductive well being exterior St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 2022.Photograph by Dean Moses
Shah additionally highlighted the affect of President Donald Trump’s second administration, which opposes common ladies’s reproductive rights and has minimize funding for organizations like Deliberate Parenthood. To counteract these monetary setbacks, PPGNY seeks to bolster its sources via metropolis assist within the fiscal yr 2026 finances.
“We are proud to provide critical care to New Yorkers at low or no cost, but we cannot do it alone,” Shah emphasised. “Our champions in elected office must step to truly invest in reproductive health access so we can be the city our communities deserve, especially in such a hostile national political climate. Here in New York, we must create an abortion ecosystem that is sustainable and equitable for all.”
Among the many strongest voices backing PPGNY’s request is Brooklyn Council Member Shahana Hanif, who co-chairs the Council’s Progressive Caucus. She performed a key position in establishing the nation’s largest municipal abortion entry fund in response to the Supreme Court docket’s 2022 Dobbs resolution, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
“With increasing threats to bodily autonomy at the federal level and across the country, it’s more important than ever that New York City invest in remaining a safe haven for safe and accessible sexual, reproductive, and gender-affirming healthcare,” Hanif stated. “As attacks on reproductive rights and gender-affirming care escalate, it’s critical that we not only maintain but expand our commitment to ensuring that every person, regardless of income, immigration status, or where they come from, can access the care they need with dignity and without fear.”
Manhattan Council Members Carmen de la Rosa and Julie Menin, co-chairs of the Council’s Ladies’s Caucus, additionally voiced their assist, underscoring the significance of reproductive well being care funding.
“Reproductive health and access to quality care are pillars of the Women’s Caucus, and funding organizations like Planned Parenthood of Greater New York with programs prioritizing women’s reproductive health ensures access to essential care to the women of our city,” they stated in a joint assertion. “It also defends against harmful policies and upholds the fundamental human right to a woman’s bodily autonomy.”
Whereas New York lawmakers have enacted laws safeguarding the authorized proper to abortion—and voters have enshrined this proper within the state structure—Deliberate Parenthood argues that authorized protections imply little with out equitable entry to care. Sustainable funding, the group asserts, is important to making sure that New Yorkers can train their reproductive rights absolutely and with out limitations.