 Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Lorraine Grillo, First Deputy Mayor. Today is a sad day and an emotional one for me. It's sad for the second, for the second time in a matter of hours, our country has experienced a life-changing bill. Today, the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade, the law in the land that was established 50 years ago that said women had the right to an abortion, to have a say over what happens to their bodies. And it's emotional for me because this is a law I personally fought for 50 years ago with millions of others. It's an outrage, and this is decades of progress erased. This is an attack on women's rights, and I continue to stand in solidarity with everyone who believes they should have the right to make their own decisions about their own lives. And it's extremely sad and extremely emotional for me because my three daughters and my granddaughter have less freedom than I did. But we and they are blessed. They're blessed to live here in New York City where we are and will be free to choose. Thank you. And I want to now introduce Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Eisam. My name is Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Eisam. I stand here with you today as a woman, as a mother, and as a daughter. So the first thing I did today was I called my 91-year-old mom, and she said to me, what is happening in this country? Don't they know? Don't they know that when I was back in Trinidad, there were so many young women that lost their lives? Don't they know that this is today has made people unsafe? Don't they care? I didn't know what to say to her. So my next thought went to my two daughters, 28 and 20, because the truth of the matter is being a mother is the best job I have ever had, and I loved it so much. But when I was 18 years old, I was not ready to be a mom. So if I didn't have access to a safe, affordable abortion, I would not be here with you all today. I wouldn't have the life that I wanted to have. I wouldn't be able to be the mother that I want to be. I wouldn't be able to have 18. I wasn't financially ready, socially ready, emotionally ready. So today is so important for all of those people throughout this country that do not and are not as safe as they need to be. I also want to be really clear and state firmly that abortion is still legal in New York. We stand as a safe haven for all, for all, and we'll do everything we can to support people who come to our city for their reproductive health care. Abortion is health care and access to abortion is a public health issue. We're expanding and enhancing access to abortion in our city as we remain a safe haven, especially we know that today is going to be hard for the least amongst us, communities of color and especially the poor. We will be providing accurate information for the public on how to access and pay for services. We've updated and enhanced our public websites and 311 to provide clear information. We are also improving patient access for everyone in our city. We are standing up a citywide abortion call line and navigation hub so there's a single place to find all information. We will ensure our public hospital system has every resource it needs to meet the needs of patients regardless of where they are from or their ability to to pay. We are increasing provider capacity in our city and adding medication abortion at our sexual health clinics which will provide more access in communities that need it the most. Lastly, we will ensure safety and security for all patients and providers. While we're doing as much as we can as a city to provide care to all who seek it, I want to reiterate all women. I also want to encourage everyone to take the time that they need today to recognize what you're feeling. My head is spinning. My hands are shaking. My heart is broken today. So I need you if you want to protest then you protest but if you want to rest you rest today because we have a lot of work that we need to do and for me rage and hope live side by side as a black woman in America they have to right y'all and so I want you to rest because we have a lot of work to do today for my children and for all of our children. I now will hand it over to my sister deputy mayor Maria Torres Springer. Thank you Ann. My name is Maria Torres Springer. I'm the deputy mayor for economic and workforce development. I'm also the proud mother of two amazing girls. In fact becoming a mother was the best choice I ever made and that's exactly what having a child should be a choice. My daughters like women and girls all over this country they have dreams to go to college to be elite gymnasts to travel the world to open a business to go to law school maybe even run for office and for the past half century this was the promise for women in this country we had the right to decide when and whether to become mothers we could finish school start a career and have a family when we were ready but five justices on the Supreme Court have decided to take this all away and my daughter's generation will be the first one in 50 years that has lost their right to determine their future and to be very clear this isn't some abstract fight about social issues these are kitchen table concerns that impact a woman's ability to be economically stable to continue her education and to plan for her future legal abortion has indeed transformed women's lives and economic opportunities over the last half century it has given women greater assurance and control over when and whether to start a family allowing them to fully participate in our economy it has reduced black maternal mortality by 40 percent and for the one and four women in the united states who have made the decision at some point in their lives to end the pregnancy it has meant respect of their fundamental rights to bodily autonomy and access to care today's outrageous and heart-wrenching ruling claws back the hard one agency women have secured over their bodies and their lives the freedom of women to control their bodies should not hinge on a state line women in alabama texas oklahoma deserve the same rights as women in new york but today 36 million americans nearly half of the women of reproductive age in this country stand to lose safe and legal abortion access now pregnancy and abortion are deeply personal matters it is because these issues are so important that we must have the right to make our own choices no one can really know what the circumstances are of others and that is especially true for judges and for politicians many of whom will never be pregnant i know this first hand i had an abortion it was the right decision for me and my husband and so today i share your anger i share your disappointment i share your frustration and i share your outrage but also today we in the adams administration want to send a very clear message that we will take the necessary steps to fully protect both women in this city and those who come to our city to access the freedom which may no longer exist in their hometowns today and always in this city women will have full autonomy over their bodies and the right to make their own medical decisions but then tomorrow and every day until reproductive health access in this country is fully restored we in the adams administration will be right here with you hand in hand it will not be an easy fight but it is a fight that we can win so let's get to work i'd now like to introduce the deputy mayor for operations mirazoshi hello i'm mirazoshi deputy mayor for operations women have children women over overwhelmingly are responsible for raising those children this reality without a doubt frames the quality of women's lives whether we work where we work what times we can work and our ability to engage in and contribute to society for women safe i'll be louder than him legal safe legal abortion is the tool that allows us to break out of these constraints and today the supreme court stole that tool they stole our freedom they stole the wide open future of our sisters and our daughters they stole the boundless dreams and aspirations of young women across the nation our female role models often say young girl this can someday be you but today the foundational premise of that statement has been shattered and with this theft in broad daylight the court sent a deeply disturbing spine chilling message women in america you're not worthy you're not worthy of having the ability to make a choice that will allow you to pursue your dreams follow your ambition break cycles of poverty and live full and complete lives this event is packed with women many of whom's presence here today is a direct result of having choice and it's a stunning example of the power of that choice this is a room symbolic of powerful colorful gatherings across the country now imagine a world where many of these valuable creative figures are absent the strong women to the left and right of you all because they can't make a choice over their body and because they can't make a choice they can't participate that's a dark world that's a world in which we all lose so let's not get confused today the nation was robbed of the hard fought right for women to participate in all parts of our society it's a right that allows our nation to be a more complete and a more just one so let that ugly and simple truth be what burns in our souls and feeds our fight forward thank you i'd like to turn it over to our deputy mayor shina right i so deeply appreciate the sisterhood that we have here in the city i am not as eloquent today as my sister deputy mayors and i don't have prepared remarks quite frankly i was stunned like the wind was not that of me today we knew it was coming but it's like i was like no they won't do that they won't take away this fundamental right that women enjoy in this country and when it happened i was just on my heels i couldn't function the rest of the day and the shock and outrage that i know we all feel as has been said has to be met with a fight back i am grateful that we live in the city of new york in the state of new york but i weep for all of our sisters who live in all of those states who are going to be shamed trying to shame them they're going to be persecuted this is a horrible horrible outcome but i know particularly with these women here and others across the country we will continue to fight and we will get on the right side of this issue while we are stunned today we're outraged we're in despair we have not lost because we will continue to press forward the last thing i'll say is as i thought about today i thought what's next what's next clearly anything is possible if this fundamental right has been ripped from us so we have to stay vigilant we have to stay focused and we have to keep pressing forward i want to introduce our chief housing officer jessica katz hi everybody i wasn't planning on coming and speaking here today but listening to these amazing women and their stories i felt compelled to um and i want to say something to the to everybody here and particularly the men here today is to just be gentle with the women in your life today because i'm relieved to be living in new york city um on this difficult day but it's also cold comfort because it still feels like a fundamental right has been taken away from us as you've heard a few times here today there's a few different kinds of abortion stories and i've experienced a few of them there's the kind where you're so young and it's the wrong guy in the wrong time and you have your whole life ahead of you and you don't think that that should be determined by one moment of bad judgment there's the kind where you're having a miscarriage and you're in the middle of fertility treatments that didn't work again and you're just desperate for it to be over so you can have the baby that you so desperately want and i can't even imagine what it would have been like in that moment to have to beg a judge for mercy as so many women across the country are now going to have to do and then there's the kind where you're have amazing family and the children that you want and the career that you've aspired to your whole life and your family feels complete and you don't think that another pregnancy and another baby is what's best for you or your family in that moment so all those kinds of stories there's a few other kinds that i've been very lucky not to have to experience so i want to just make sure that everyone here is gentle and kind to each other today and just to remind everybody how much all these amazing women on the stage today we owe not just our careers that we love but also the families that we love to being able to have that right to have an abortion so thank you so much to everyone who's here and with that mayor Eric Adams thank you and i thought it was imperative that we heard from the woman of the office and i just want to bring on before i speak of a woman who has been very much part of of my career and have really watched me develop into the person that i am and i just want her to be part of showing what the women of this office feel and what they are experienced ingrate as our first deputy mayor and all of our other deputy mayors expressed today is a tragic day a sad day when women cannot make a choice of what they want to do with their own bodies is completely unacceptable for a woman who is raped who didn't want to engage in having sex and becomes pregnant to have to give birth to a baby that she may be ill equipped to nurture is unacceptable deputy mayor and William Isom said that whatever you feel like doing today you should do if you want to protest protest i say to you this there will come a time when the opportunity will present itself for this tragic ruling to be reversed everyone who is outraged you must exercise your right to vote for the proper president who will appoint supreme court justices who will see and understand the magnitude and the scale of what has happened today the supreme court isn't standing alone in this ruling every american who is outraged who didn't vote for the proper president to appoint the proper supreme court presidents i mean supreme court justices you are at fault and you will have chance to correct that wrong so i strongly encourage americans to do more than just protest do the right thing exercise your right to put in the proper person who can make the right size appointments and without any further ado it's indeed a pleasure for me to present to you our 110th mayor of the city of new york eric adams thank you and i knew i knew in hindsight there was a reason i brought on board with me uh for the first time uh five deputy mayors and my chief advisor uh all of the women who are here with us in this administration and something is significant as i say to them all the time you know ignore the noise hundreds of us are on the step you have one idiot out there and you may think that that's what americans are feeling that's just noise that's just noise and notice notice it's not a woman notice that jessica said something that just really resonated with the wrong time i was 15 and i just got home from being arrested and linda came to me and she said eric i'm pregnant and look at your life and it was my desire automatically just to say linda keep the baby she said eric you you arrested you're not going to school what future is this baby going to have have and she made the decision that was smart for both of us she made the right call because she was empowered she was in control and some years later when john mom was pregnant she made the determination she wanted to have a sign she made the determination because she was empowered to make that determination don't kill ourselves this is the erosion and destruction of the ability of women to have and be empowered five men who can never conceive made a determination on what will happen to the women of this city and country every decision not to have a child comes with a story and each one of those individual stories are so important it's so private they're so significant and no woman just decides automatically it's a deep thought to make that determination and now to rob them of that ability to do so is probably one of the most darkest period in our country what a battle we are in this is so surreal what is happening in our country it is though everything we fought for to become the social conscious of the globe is being dismantled right now and this is the second time in a week that a radical supreme court has issued a decision aimed directly at safety health freedoms of new yorkers and all americas a second time in a week what a warning sign this decision will fundamentally alter the role of women in our society by constraining their freedoms and challenging the autonomy a direct attack at women in this country it takes us backwards in a dog time in our nation history when women used to go to places and have unsafe pregnancy terminations particularly those poorer and black and brown communities we know that we're coming with this knowledge when we make this change they were targeted in these communities after today young women will come at age with fewer rights than their parents they come of age with fewer rights than their parents fewer alternatives won't be able to make these decisions it sends chills down my spine this is more than an issue of reproductive rights and public health this is a decision about controlling a woman's body controlling her body you can't legislate that you can't put in place some supreme court decision on that the right to control your body this about who decides who rules who has power and who deprived who's deprived of it and right now the american people are being deprived of that fundamental power to choose one's destiny whether they are allowing dangerous people to buy and carry deadly weapons or banning women for making their own health decisions the far right enabled by this court has declared war on the american people war on public war on public safety and our pursuit of happiness they want to talk about constitutions somewhere i read that you have the right to pursue happiness you just rob that right away the decision in these two consecutive cases rovay versus way and Bruin and dobs also highlight a fundamental hypocrisy on the issues of personal rights and states rights when it comes to our bodies we have no rights but when it comes to their guns they have every right this is not wise jurisprudence or reasonable argument this is a power grab the d legitimatizing the court even as it undermines our freedoms while there is talk of history in this decisions there's little acknowledgement of the reality that is what we are facing in this court including the reality of how this decision would play out for those already struggling with poverty and inequality with racism and other crises the reality that most americans face especially in poorer parts of this country the court's dissenting opinion highlights that this court is now voting politically and not judicially in my view this decision signals that overturning rovay versus wade is only the beginning of a long range plan to dismantle individual rights and rollback social progress in the service of minority rule for marriage equality something i fought for on the senate floor to the rights of contraceptions from voting rights to human rights the court intends to destroy long established protections and turn back the clock on the progress that many have fought so hard for this is their beginning but this is not our ending to fight against the supreme court and use our powers as deputy mayor william isham has indicated we are going to step up because this is the city of fighting on behalf of all's we will step up and ensure those women across this country that need a safe haven we will ensure they get information and ensure that our health care facilities are there to stand with them and let's be clear we're not starting standing idly by we're working to inform the public of their rights in new york and ensuring the safety security of everywhere new york will be the safe haven for america and for the women of this country frikis must have a legal right to reproductive health care in any kind including abortion everyone must be free to live their own lives as they choose without being constrained to retrograde in state sponsor dominance anything less is an affront to our fundamental rights and must be fought with fierce resistance in the new york and all over this nation that fierce resistance will rise new york is the place where freedom is defined and rightfully so our demographics our ethnicity our diversity is reflective of every country and every state in this country in this country new york is all going to stand by and let the will of the majority of americans be bypassed they won't be undermined by a cabal of activist judges with a clear political agenda we must use our power of protest as was mentioned in our sacred right to vote as ingrid mentioned to stop this assault on our individual liberties and now more than ever it's time for congress not to sit on past precedent let's codify abortion into law let's pass the law that states women have the right to choose their body this is our moment new york this is our moment america let's step up and reach that moment thank you so ladies and gentlemen if you have any questions on topic please thank you very much and you know just by the manner you displayed your passion you may be a reporter but you're emotionally attached to this issue and i can tell that as a woman you are offended we should look at every law that's possible in the state and we should just as we're going to ask the governor to return to albany to deal with the right to carry we should deal with this issue but let's be clear if we pass something in the state we're leaving our sisters behind in other states this is a national problem and it's time for national leadership to step up and solve this problem what does it say to my auntie in alabama what does it say to my family members in florida i am not going to say we should only have the right in new york we should have the right in our country we were looking to have fun and we think that's an excellent idea our legal counsel as well as our budget office is going to look at that as deputy mayor william isan indicated we are leaving no stones unturned this is a fight that we believe we must take on behalf of the people of this city and behalf of the people of this country this is not a fight we're going to sit idly by on deputy mayor william isan you want to talk about what we're doing so yeah okay thanks for the question um i just want to also say that this is an issue of rights but it's also an issue of safety this is not going to reduce the number of abortions as we've seen in states that already make abortions more difficult this is going to increase the number of unsafe abortions it's going to increase the number of unsafe pregnancies so this is a direct harm on women in addition to snatching their rights and their choice for the for the city of new york we're working to expand access to medication abortion in our sexual health clinics we're working to expand the provider capacity and the number of abortions conducted at our public hospital system and most importantly we're looking at also supporting people who want to come to our city to get access to care to get the supports they need things like transportation lodging food support that so that they can travel to our city and get taken care of holistically and so we'll be announcing plans over the coming days weeks and months um and i'm eager to do that with partnership with all these fantastic leaders here i'll say the same thing we would say to anyone uh as uh dr fasan uh pointed out this is a health issue uh and particularly in poorer communities access to quality health care is a long time fight uh as we look at what happens when unwanted pregnancies as ingrid pointed out one could be the victim of a crime i believe all of us need to let look inward and state that we should never dismantle a right a woman's right to choose her body i don't know any law i don't know any law that has been put in place a ruling that has been put in place that allow men not to have the right over their bodies so why can't we do the same for women our law department has been extremely busy um from the terrible ruling that was handed down yesterday uh to this uh judge sylvia rhine's radix hinds radix uh is is here uh she's going to be partnered with our chief counsel we are communicating with lawyers all across this country to really combat these two issues but also to look at the other issues on horizon this is really the beginning of the actions i believe of the supreme court and we're going to look at everything that's possible for new york to utilize what's within our scope of authority uh to push back on rulings such as this i would say to new yorkers in americans be very afraid be very afraid and that fear should turn into mobilization uh that fear should play out as we make a decision of electing the right people to make the decision on who's going to be our supreme court justice six to three right now of i believe that this is a real plan to look at all the things that they've been waiting to dismantle uh taking place so we can't allow fear to stymie us to sit still we must allow that fear to motivate us to ensure that we could uh balance out this court i never thought we would see the court use politics or personal beliefs to get in the way of what the american people want so this is a an alarming concerning time and if we ignore that and believe as though this is just two issues that were uh handed down this is not an overall plan that's a big mistake so what does that call for that calls for women right activists activists to partner with those from the lgbtq plus community to partner with those with immigration right to partner with those with voting rights we can't remain divided we have to be united to pursue because if we ignore what happened to women today they could happen to the members of the lgbtq plus community tomorrow immigrants voting rights all of these issues are in play and we have to unite together and say we are fortified in our front to fight this and understand what you're saying nj but you know it's just not about new york there's no one here in this room that does not have a family member outside the state and if we basically say well you know what we dodge the bullet then that is not who we are as a city this city has always reached beyond our borders to state that we are in this together this this this city there's something special about new york we are the social countries of this country and the reason we're here is not because of what is impacting us directly but what is impacting our country and directly so if one of their children decide to move to another state their child may be in that state and they're not going to have the rights that they had here so that is why this is so important to move this to the national level we're going to do what we have to do here and make sure this is a safe haven but we need the national government to step up with the same level of vigilance that we saw we're seeing here uh dr fassan and uh the deputy mayor william isam our team is sitting down as soon as we thought this was on the horizon we started thinking about what could we do and we're going to continue uh to fortify the grounds here and both of them and their entire team is looking at this this must be a safe haven for people who are seeking refugee refuge from what is happening in this state we're all going to economic challenges we don't have an open ended uh purse uh to everyone in this country that desires to give transportation whomever comes here for assistance we will be here for that and that is what we're going to we're going to do we're going to see what we could do with the minimum amount of resources for those that we can give transportation to but also ask asking our corporate entities there's no reason all of our corporations can't come together and put together some form of pot to help those who are seeking the right to have the abortion uh when it when it comes down to police i spoke with the police commissioner this morning we thought we had a suspicious package as at a site where someone was protesting at or protesters were there uh we're going to remain vigilant at all of these locations to ensure that there are no one is put in harm's way no one is threatened and no one is put in a position where they will be harassed out of their right to have an abortion if they choose to do so no you don't have to do a fixed post there uh we will make sure that we bring in all of our uh clinics of planned parenthood and others and put in place a real plan of how to notify if they believe there's something suspicious a suspicious package or someone is acting in any form of disorderly conduct well no i am a local leader it's just that the way goes new york goes the country this is america's city so it's not so much who i am is what the city represents and our voices cascade throughout the entire country uh we have great leaders there chuck schumer just passed an important bill in the senate around how came jeffrey's uh the leader of the democratic conference uh they are amazing leaders there that also understand this issue they must work out that plan on what we need to do but the expansion of the supreme court is crucial uh we need to balance out this court before they do more harm than what they've done thus far