 Okay. Good morning. I'm Anne Williams-Eisem and I have the pleasure of being the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services. And I was just thinking this morning that in the midst of all of the things that one has to deal with in New York City and the challenges, we still have to focus on health. And the health of New Yorkers is one of the most important things. We, the mayor and I were at a fentanyl summit this morning where we have people from all around the nation who are struggling with the issue of fentanyl coming together to give us ideas about how we get through this. Fifteen months ago, following the Dobb Supreme Court decision, we had a press conference right here outside on the steps of City Hall with hundreds of people, with the mayor and many others including myself who spoke personally and passionately about reproductive healthcare and access to abortion services for those in need. We are gathered here today to talk about additional action the city is taking to stand up for reproductive rights. Before I turn things over to the mayor, let me acknowledge the people who are standing with us today. Along with the mayor we have Dr. Mitch Katz, President of CO, NYC Health and Hospital, Dr. Marissa Nadash, Reproductive Health, Clinical Lead at H&H, and a number of other, I will call them the dream team and superstars from H&H, including Dr. Wendy Wilcox, Efren Kareem, Dr. Stasha O Callahan, Dr. Adrian Bingham, McKella Mallow, Alexa Gingerella, Princess Ward, and Dr. Stephanie Rand. And of course we also have with us, Wendy Stark, the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York here today. We have a few elected officials who are here with us as well, Assembly members Rosh Kumar and Assembly member Harvey Epstein. With that I would now like to turn it over to Mayor Adams. Thanks so much, Deputy Mayor. We were all over the city today. And really to the entire team that's here and it shows the coming together of advocacy, government, and our healthcare professionals as we deal with an issue that is dear to many of us and that is women's health rights and their gender. We say that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights. They go hand in hand. This announcement today is so important. Fifty years of settled law and personal freedom were, those rules were under attack when the courts overturned road versus way. We immediately stated from day one, we were not going to sit on our hands or sit back and just say, what was me? We said, why not me? Why can't we as a city find ways to shore up the rights that women deserve not only in this country, but throughout this entire city and state. Access to safe legal abortion care is the cornerstone of public health. In New York City it would always be. When I stand out of Dubai as these attacks continue and the far right seeks to strip our citizens of their basic rights. Because we know that restricting access to abortion is simply about controlling women's bodies, their choices, and their freedoms, we're going to stand up and have a united front to push back on that. After the decision, we immediately signed six bills into law that ensured that reproductive rights and freedoms are protected in New York City. We launched the abortion access hub to confidentially refer callers to abortion care and in a first in the country we rolled out no-course medication abortion care at the city's sexual health clinics becoming the first health department in the country to do so. Today I am proud to announce another first for our city government. Access to abortion care will now be available through telehealth visits provided by New York City Health and Hospitals. Beginning this week, people in New York City seeking abortion care will be able to speak to a New York state licensed health care professional by video or by phone from the comfort of their home. Tough decision is made in the comfort of your environment and your home. And if you are clinically eligible, that provider will be able to prescribe abortion medication that will be delivered to your New York City address within days. The service will be available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Seven days a week through New York City Health and Hospitals virtual express care service. This is an important step forward of using technology to deal with the major demand on those who are looking for access. In New York City, we're never going to stop fighting for a woman's right to choose that care that she needs and the right for all families who are involved. Our telehealth services are offered in over 200 different languages and we serve patients regardless of their ability to pay. Abortion access should never be limited by language or one's ability or their income to pay. Our role is simple to hold and to help New Yorkers make the choices they need safely and without discrimination. Really proud of this moment, a significant moment again of matching technology with the demand and the needs of great job to all involved and particularly to our Deputy Mayor and an entire health and hospital team. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. I was sitting here thinking that as the daughter of a midwife and as the mom of, I was going to say two daughters, but I should include my son in that too. I'm very proud to be raising them. They're grown here in New York City where we have access to things of this sort. And to add briefly to what the mayor said nationwide, according to the Gutmacker Institute, more than 50 percent of abortions are now occurring with the use of medication, showing the importance of what we're doing here in the largest city in the country to provide accessible reproductive care through a method through telehealth, which allows New Yorkers to connect with their providers quickly and to discuss their health care trajectory. The mayor also talked about access that will be available to patients and how we're tackling access barriers for many who struggle to get visits with their providers. A person, it could be due to challenges in transportation, mobility, or other disabilities, and or just in life circumstances. Ultimately, this action will once again meet people where they are by providing another method for them to seek the health care guidance they need in a timely manner. We all witnessed the power of telehealth services through the pandemic, and H&H's virtual express care is an enduring tool to connect with patients. Let me turn it over to Dr. Nadash to say a few words. Thank you, Mayor Adams and Deputy Mayor Williams Isom. Good morning. My name is Marisa Nadash. I'm an OBGYN physician with New York City Health and Hospitals. I oversee our family planning services, and I'm the Associate Medical Director for Virtual Express Care. I was supposed to have an older brother. My parents were expecting a baby boy, their first child, in the mid-1970s. Seven months into the pregnancy, my mom was diagnosed with a stillbirth. Devastated, she turned to her doctor for what to do. And still to this day, she talks about the care she received that day as kind and compassionate, as she ended the pregnancy very differently than the way she had planned. Today across the country, people are struggling to find that same compassionate care for both abortion and miscarriage alike. The fear connected to pregnancies that end before their time is pervasive, and doctors and patients often are unable to follow the safest and the kindest path. I myself have two daughters and a son, and they currently have fewer rights under our federal government than their grandmother did. It is the history of my family and it is the future of my family that leads me to provide full-spectrum reproductive health care, including abortion care. I am so proud to work for New York City Health and Hospitals, our city's public health care system, where we recognize that health care is a human right and where we serve everyone regardless of immigration status or ability to pay. And today, we're building on that with a new service, our telehealth abortion service. Abortion care is essential health care. This new service complements the incredible work that we are already doing across our system to provide comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion care. It is integrated into our obstetric and our gynecologic services at all of our hospitals, and we've had the opportunity to expand this care in many directions, thanks in part to the critical funding that was made available by Governor Huckle. Through this new service, patients in New York City can speak to a provider about their pregnancy, receive counseling on demand from the comfort of their home. If a patient chooses a medication abortion and is medically appropriate, then they can receive that medication by mail within a few days. They can access this new service on the Internet at expresscare.nyc, and they can also call our phone number at 718-360-8981. The COVID-19 pandemic showed us that expanding health care delivery via telehealth can decrease inequities in access. It ensures that there are no delays in care, and it also overcomes some of the barriers such as the cost of travel and childcare. This is particularly relevant to our patient seeking abortion care, because most people seeking abortion care are already parents, and many are living on low incomes. As a physician, I want all of my patients to have access to care when they need it and wherever they need it. Over the past few months, I've worked with the providers who are on the other side of these calls. I can tell you that this is who I would direct my sister, my daughter, my cousin to. They are experienced, committed, and compassionate providers who are ready to support our patients on their reproductive health journey. Our team looks forward to serving you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Nadash. You make me proud to be a New Yorker, and we share, apparently, two daughters and a son, so we have to connect on that. Next, I'd like to bring up Wendy Stark from Planned Parenthood to say a few words. So glad to finally meet you in person. Thank you so much for all of your advocacy and all of your support. Good morning, and thank you for being here today. Today is truly an historic win for abortion access in New York City, and I applaud New York City Health and Hospitals for taking this really important stride until a health abortion services. Now New Yorkers can access critical abortion care from the comfort of their own homes, and without worrying about barriers to care, like transportation or significant time off of work, and that is, indeed, helpful on the path to equitable access and equitable health outcomes. When we make abortion care more accessible, we empower individuals to make the best decisions for themselves, their families, and their neighbors. Abortion is health care, as Dr. Narash said, and it should be available to all who need it without delay or difficulty. Thank you to Mayor Adams, to Deputy Mayor Williams Isam, Commissioner Vasan, Dr. Katz, and the teams at Health and Hospitals for making this possible and for being such incredible partners in the fight for abortion rights and access. I'm thrilled to share with you that alongside this historic announcement from Health and Hospitals, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York also launches our virtual health center this week. Health services from contraception, including emergency contraception, to gender-affirming hormone therapy, also under attack in our country so horrifically right now, will be accessible to New Yorkers across the state with a touch of a button. Our trusted providers are here as well to care for and support you where and when you need it. Today we are one step closer to building a New York of reproductive freedom for all, and I'm so proud and grateful to be in this work with all of you to celebrate this critical step forward for reproductive health access in New York City. Thank you. Can we take a few on topics on this? One thing I'm curious about, I mean this would be delivered to people's residents and I'm just kind of inferring like outside of the state people, you know, they're anti-abortion people who say, you know, what's to prevent people from outside of New York City coming in, going to their friends' apartment and ordering these services. Are there kind of legal ramifications you've gained out as far as people coming in from out of the state and taking advantage of what that means, if it means anything, I mean, I don't know if there are legal ramifications to that. Thank you for that question. So in New York City health and hospitals, we provide care for anyone that walks through our doors and that is both physically and virtually. This is a service that is designed for the people of New York City and as we know the people of New York City are the people of the world that have come to New York City. So we're here for anyone that's here in our city and looking for services. So we are a city hospital system that is designed for the people of New York City. If someone calls us from outside the city, we will assist them in navigating to care. We won't be able to prescribe them a telehealth medication abortion but we will help them to connect to the people of New York City who are still able to access the abortion that they need. In terms of the cost, this is something that is built on an already expansive system. We are already providing abortion care and we already have a very robust telehealth service. So we were able to expand the services that we provide with our existing staff and providers. I just want to follow up on that question. So if somebody calls in to the number, do they know if their address has to be connected to New York City address? Is that all getting verified? And then I wonder, it's coming back in the mail, somebody could potentially see that they're getting something from health in hospitals. Is there something for that if it's coming? Let's say somebody lives with other people in their home. How does that come back in the mail so that other people who are there are aware of it? So when people call, we do ask that they have access to the telehealth service. We also ask that they have access to the telehealth service. And when they provide an address for mailing the medication, we also verify that address with them and verify that it's within New York City. In terms of the receipt of the medication, I think it's important to remember that telehealth medication abortion is not the right choice for everyone. So the best we can do to protect a patient's privacy is to offer them the most private option because they don't need to use funds, travel to a clinic, take time off work. For other people, they don't want to have medication mailed to them and they would prefer to come into one of our facilities to complete their care. I can also say that the medication is mailed using discrete packaging, so there's nothing that labels it as medication abortion. So it's important to remember that if you have a state and kind of crash, if their friends have whatever, I mean to say crash, but you know, we're staying with their friend, right, like in how to send to that address, that's the address they're staying. People from out of state could access this service just by being located in the city and having it sent there. Is that right? That is correct. All over the country . I know that out of our concern of making sure that we really respond to the off-topic questions that we get, I believe Deputy Mayor Levy sent out a notice that we're going to be holding once a week just off topics so you could ask whatever questions you want. I think we're doing that tomorrow. On Tuesday, this would give you an opportunity to talk about the challenges we want to be as clear as possible. And the DM would be there. We'll have the DMs. And the DM would be there to go over this important summit. I want to thank her for doing it. She'll go over the outcome. It's taking place right now. Okay. I'm not sure what other mayors have done. There are things that they've done that I think are really important. But I think the real mix messages is that we're going to have an off-topic. We're going to bring in our Deputy Mayors that will sit down. No man in the history of this city has been more accessible, more approachable, more on the ground than I have. And so this is the rule. We put it, don't look around at your door.