 The advocate, when we had the press conference, said she'd been working on this for 35 years, 35 years, and there has never been any legislation to address it until now. And it's not lost to me that it happens when it's a majority women council and a black woman speaker. This is the importance of making sure that we have all the voices heard. And I want to shout out the women on my staff. Before I even knew how close this would hit, they brought this to me about two or three years ago. I had no idea what was happening, what was going on. I had no idea how close to home it would hit. And of course, I shared the story with myself and India have been going through. And I have to tell you, even before we got a doctor who started listening and treating my wife like she should be treated, I still didn't see the comparison when they were trying to take her uterus at every turn without even understanding that she wanted to have children. And I'm standing before you today. My wife is cancer-free. Beautiful miracle baby is seven months. And it's amazing. But I haven't shared this part, but when she was born, we immediately told that she and my wife would have to have a blood transfusion. And when you're standing there thinking about people like Shajel Washington and Emma Isaac and the people who were carrying their legacy and thinking about those stories in there, it's a lot. It's a lot to handle. And I know how blessed we are because of how our story turned out. I just can't imagine how many people we lost in those 35 years or more that people have been working on this issue. As the ball president said, this is a heinous disparity that is simply unacceptable. I also can't imagine what would have happened if my wife and I couldn't take off work without thinking about how we're gonna pay the bills. There are so many things that are intertwined and how black women are dying. And also, I remember my wife telling me, we have a beautiful 14-year-old by marriage. The way she was initially treated was the same way she was treated when she was unmarried with no career and no insurance. She's married with a great career, great insurance, and still was treated the same way. It is a simple race issue. And I'm proud of the legislation that we put forward and I'm proud to be part of a legislature that's gonna really move this to the level it needs to be, understanding this is the step that probably should have happened 35 years ago. But it's not gonna stop here. Peace and blessing, love and light to everyone. Thank you so much. Thank you so much to the public advocate and to your daughter for being here and to, again, underlining how much racism shapes these outcomes and is completely preventable. Next, I'd like to pass the mic to Councilmember Farah Lewis. Good afternoon, everyone. I sure did need this, right? Um, first I just, because I see you here, I wanna thank Speaker Adrian Adams because before the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, she was already thinking about how do we combat issues with maternal health in New York City. So if we could give her a quick round of applause for her leadership. And I also just wanna thank Mayor Adams as well for already thinking about the issue that we're combating in the city and that's racial disparities that black women are going through. I know in my district and Council District 45, we have the highest rate of maternal mortality and morbidity in East Flatbush amongst Caribbean women. So this issue is very, very much an issue that I'm passionate about. I used to be in healthcare before I made it into politics and I know how much we need advocates on the ground, as well as City Hall that will address these issues. So I just wanna thank my colleagues who co-sponsors, builds with me 482 and 409, making sure that we're also talking about the conditions that cause maternal health issues like polycystic ovary syndrome. We have a lot of women in New York City who have these conditions and when they go and meet with their doctors, there's no one that could identify what the real issues are. So I just wanna thank the Council for pushing this forward. Thank you, Public Advocate, for always putting women first and thank you, Mayor President, for all that you're doing right now with Birthing Centers in Brooklyn. Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilwoman Farrell-Lewis. In particular, for highlighting Caribbean women, women of Caribbean descent, I think it's really important that we remember how important it is to tailor our work and our messages to communities, specifically who might be having different experiences. I wanna welcome up Councilmember Jennifer Gutierrez next. Thank you. Good afternoon. I wanna thank Speaker Adams for her unwavering leadership and commitment not just as a speaker but as a member. She's truly tied in the notion that when you elect women, you get changes for women that matter at the policy level. So I wanna commend her for her work, for her space in allowing us to pursue this. I of course wanna thank Borough President Antonio Reynoso who in many ways kind of helped me through my pregnancy. I also delivered at Wood Hall and I didn't think about how impactful it was that I was able to work with a midwife and that I was privileged to be a relative of a doula who was there for me when I delivered my child. The experience that our public advocate shared is still truly resonates with me. And I can go on and on about how beneficial these bills are at not just reminding New Yorkers how valuable black women are, how valuable Latina women are, how valuable indigenous women are, but I want to drive home that the practice of midwives and doulas, it's ancestral, it's indigenous. Long before we were talking about how important it is, our communities were doing it already. And so this package of bills validates that very indigenous practice that all of our ancestors have already done and really tie money to it, tie timelines to it. I'm excited to see what the report reveals at the end of next year because what we know and what I can anticipate is that the priority areas are going to do a lot better and that we need to invest a lot more energy and funding into ensuring that every pregnant person has the same access to healthcare in this way. So thank you once again to all my colleagues for being my partners and thank you for my mentors and of course our speaker for allowing us this space to get these bills finally passed. Thank you so much, Council Member Gutierrez and thank you again for underlining indigenous practices as a part of this work. Next up, I'd like to welcome Council Member Crystal Hudson. Good afternoon and thank you. I just want to reiterate what everyone has said and to commend the men in the room who are standing with us. As Borough President Reynoso said, the men who get it but the sad truth is that there aren't enough who do and it's always women who are fighting for women and black women who are fighting for black women and women of color who are fighting for ourselves and we need more people to understand that at all of these intersections it takes all of us to advocate for each and every one of us, particularly those of us who are most disproportionately impacted by something like maternal mortality. I launched a black agenda for New York City last year when I was running for city council and it got no shine, no love because it's talking about black people and I'm really proud of the fact that this bill that's the bill that I sponsored that's in this package is the first bill that I've passed and is a direct result of the black agenda for New York City and I know that when black people thrive, all people thrive and I want to keep talking about black people and like we've heard here today, black women and black birthing people are the people who are literally dying regardless of healthcare status regardless of income status. It is literally an issue of racism and so if we don't continue to talk about black people, uplift black people and advocate specifically for black people, then none of us is gonna be okay. So thank you, it's a true honor to be here and thank you to everyone for championing this package of bills including the speaker, the mayor, the public advocate, the borough president, thank you. Thank you so much council member Crystal Hudson. Next up I'd like to welcome council member Julie Menon. Thank you so much. I first of all want to thank our speaker for her incredible dedication and commitment to putting forth this legislative package and assisting all of us in getting these bills through and I also want to thank Dr. Vasan who's gonna be tasked with basically implementing a lot of these incredibly important measures and I also want to acknowledge our health committee chair, Lynn Shulman. So I'm incredibly proud today to stand along with my colleagues and I want to commend them on their incredible bills. As the mayor signed several important bills today including my legislation, intra 490. This bill would direct the department of health and mental hygiene to provide sexual and reproductive health services and conduct research on such health disparities within the city. We can't sit idly by as our daughters all across the nation literally have less rights than we do and that we did by codifying abortion and family planning services as well as counseling, testing for HIV, sexually transmitted infections, particularly for individuals without health insurance. We can ensure New York City is a beacon for all women across the nation. It's critical that our city prepares for the next wave of individuals with safe and accessible sexual and reproductive services and this bill that I'm discussing 490 requires the department of health to do just that. I'm grateful to stand alongside the mayor at today's bill signing as we stand up and protect the rights of women when the Supreme Court did not. New York is gonna continue to remain a leader for abortion access and health access for women. Thank you. Thank you so much, Council Member Menon. And next up we have Council Member Althea Stevens. So when you speak last, they already said a president. Everyone was already thanked and all those things. So I can just jump right into it. But one of the things I just wanted to say that I think is really important is that this is one of my first bills that I'm passing. And two years ago when I first started to run, my little sister's best friend passed away a few hours after giving birth. So it's not lost on me that today I'm standing here that's really going to save lives. A young son is growing up without his mom because we did not have this information access to maternal health care. So today I'm just honored to be here and making sure that the lives that have been lost are being honored as we sign these bills into law. And that's what I really want us to remember and really think about. Because today I'm standing here for Tiffany who passed away because we did not put this in place before. But now with the majority women, as you guys know, we don't just put in legislation. We also think about how do we do this holistically? Which is why this is a package of bills and not just one bill. And so those things are so important. And so thank you Mayor, Speaker Adams, public advocate and the borough presidents for starting this and now we're here to finish it off. So thank you guys all today, appreciate it. Thank you, thank you. And I just, I believe all the important notes have been said. I want to thank the speaker and the amazing team of lawmakers who played such an important role. We all talked about it over and over again about how important it is to deal with the disparities around maternal health and some of the challenges and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Rinozo. Thank you for what you're doing in Brooklyn around investing just about all of your capital dollars around this topic and making your legacy and public advocate Shimani Williams. The three of us are part of the Men Who Gets It caucus. We understand we need to be here and be supportive. Yeah. That's what we need to work on. Yeah. Councilwoman Farrell-Louis, Councilmember Christo Hudson, Councilmember Julie Menon, Councilwoman Jennifer, I always get your name but you're your name. Gutierrez. Thank you. Athea Stevens, Lynn Shulman, Mercedes-Nazis, a former nurse, this entire team. And so it's really not much more I can say but just allow my pen to sign the bills. Intro 86-A, 409-A, 472-A, 478-A, 482-A, 490-A, 500-A. Great work coming together to make this happen and thank you for doing this. Woo! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, OK. I have one more. I want to sign the bill. It's based on where everyone has it been. And it's based on those who their bills use 70, four, nine, it's normally 419-A for 86-A. That's you, Jimman? 806-A for over. For 72 that's 8. For 78 that's 8. For 82 that's 8. For 90 that's 8. 509 that's 8. Thank you all.