When the federal authorities fails to guard and empower its individuals, native governments generally is a supply of resilience, braveness, and hope. In moments of political uncertainty and rampant assault on our elementary rights, our cities have the facility and the duty to steer. That features standing up for bodily autonomy, investing in public well being, and making certain all New Yorkers have the sources to thrive.
Proper now, we’re witnessing a coordinated assault on sexual and reproductive well being throughout the US. From abortion bans to restrictions on gender-affirming care, the federal authorities and lots of states are rolling again human rights and defunding important providers that hold individuals alive and effectively. Their actions reduce deep into our communities’ entry to well being training, household planning, preventive screenings, maternal care, and extra.
However our world doesn’t should be this manner. In NYC, our elected leaders have a duty to make sure that authorities generally is a drive for good—a mechanism to create programs that serve everybody. Sexual and reproductive well being care will not be a luxurious or a fringe concern; it’s infrastructure for individuals to steer wholesome and fulfilling lives. Like clear water, steady housing, or public transportation, sexual and reproductive well being care should be accessible, protected, and assured.
Reproductive freedom is a hole promise with out entry to sexual and reproductive well being care. It’s not sufficient to say we help the precise to make choices about our personal our bodies—New York Metropolis should be sure that proper is actual. This implies investing in well being facilities, making certain the security of sufferers looking for sexual and reproductive well being care, increasing protection, defending suppliers, and making care out there to everybody, no matter revenue, immigration standing, or zip code.
These investments are the center of reproductive justice, a framework rooted within the lived experiences of Black girls and different communities of coloration. SisterSong defines reproductive justice as “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.” On this framework, society should work to handle the total spectrum of individuals’s wants past their reproductive well being choices, together with housing, training, transportation, childcare, meals safety, environmental justice, and extra.
Metropolis Corridor has already taken daring steps in the course of the previous a number of years, together with by way of historic investments in abortion care, supporting gender-affirming well being care, and resisting the tide of right-wing assaults. However right this moment and at all times, we want New York elected leaders, together with our future mayor, to boldly advance equitable entry to important sexual and reproductive well being care.
We envision a New York the place each individual has not simply rights on paper, however true entry and dignity in apply. The place care is public, not privatized; common, not conditional. The place native authorities steps up—not simply to guard the essential providers and rights which can be beneath assault, however to construct town we now have at all times deserved.
Hyperlink for PPGNY Act mayoral information: https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/planned-parenthood-greater-new-york-action-fund/take-action/nyc-mayoral-guide
