 Good morning. Today I stand before you to talk about what we owe the women in our lives. The women who birthed us, who raised us, who nurtured us. Our sisters, our aunties, our grandmas. The women who inspired us. Our teachers, our doctors, nurses, engineers, scientists. And the leaders who did so much to bring progress and change. Women like Eleanor Roosevelt, Shirley Chisholm, Francis Perkins, and Marsha P. Johnson. And the women of this city, our coworkers and colleagues, the countless hard-working women who make life in this city possible. Today, women make up 57% of the workforce nationally and 49.6% in New York City. Over half of American women are college educated. What do we owe the women who share our lives and our city with? Everything. But we are betraying them when it comes to their health. For too long, health and health care has been centered around men. If men had periods, pap smears and menopause, they would get a paid vacation. If men could get pregnant, we wouldn't see Congress trying to pass laws, restricting abortion. Women are the majority of the health care consumers. Many suffer from preventable health conditions, yet face more constraints and discrimination than men when it comes to getting care. They are diagnosed on average four years later than men, across more than 700 diseases. And sometimes must wait up to 10 years or more for the right diagnosis. Think about that for a minute. A decade for the right diagnosis. Vaginal discomfort is one of the top reasons women go to the doctor, yet they are misdiagnosed more often than they are correctly diagnosed. To be clear, that is roasting a coin flip. We would have a lot more research and care options for women's health if we weren't so afraid of saying the word vagina. I saw firsthand how the health system is letting our women down. I saw it betrayed my mother and my sisters. Growing up, my younger sister suffered from painful menstrual cycles. She was constantly in and out of doctors' offices trying to get care. She was in pain, but she wasn't taken seriously. She was told it was all in her head that she was hysterical. She was rushed through the system with no relief. One doctor even suggested sending her to get psychiatric care. And I watched as my mother was unable to get the care she needed when she was going through menopause. Overnight, her life changed. Her sleeping patterns got mixed up, which impacted her ability to do her job as a line cook. There was no understanding from her workforce in her workplace, no understanding from her doctors. It was like no one had even heard or have been through menopause before. Every New Yorker has a woman in their life who has struggled to get the care they need. It's because historically women's health has not been prioritized. And we saw that so clearly last year when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court's decision has endangered women's health across the nation. It was a decision about controlling women's bodies, their choices, and their freedom. This week would have marked 50 years of Roe v. Wade, but five men who could never conceive decided what will happen to women's bodies in this country. And it doesn't end there. Data from 2018 shows that the maternal mortality rate across the country for black women is nearly three times the rate than for white women. Here in New York City, black women are nine times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than white women. It wasn't until 1993 that women were even included in medical research when Congress passed the Revitalization Act. We know that two times more funding goes into research for male, prevalent diseases compared to female, prevalent ones. Today, only 34 percent of U.S. medical school students feel they are prepared to manage gender differences in a healthcare setting. Investments in women's health are often centered on reproductive health and childbearing, while other health issues like chronic disease prevention, pain management, gender violence, and mental health receive limited attention. This means women are paying more for their healthcare and receiving worse product. We have an outdated attitude towards women's health. While we are living in the 21st century, women's health is more than their ability to reproduce. It's about being able to live your life on your own terms. And economic disparities are making the gender healthcare gap worse. Overall, women are still being paid 77 cents on the dollar compared to men. And it is gross for women of color, with black women earning about 64 cents on the dollar and Latina women earning 57 cents on the dollar compared to white men. Childcare continues to disproportionately fall on women, holding back opportunities to advance their careers. And workplaces continue to be unfriendly towards women's health. Many lack childcare, paid family leave, and men are poor as friendly environments. We also know that products marketed towards women are often more expensive than the ones marketed towards men, like shampoo or dry cleaning. While it was banned in New York State in 2020, the pink tax is costing the average woman across the nation over $1,300 a year. The rivers of racism, social and economic inequality, lack of research and innovation are all feeding into the sea of the gender health gap. The system needs to change. We must do better, and we will do better. Women's health needs some intensive care. It's time we made New York City the future of women's health. And that is exactly what we are going to do. We're going to make New York City the healthiest city for women and girls in the nation. And our city has already made significant progress. In my days as a state senator, to Borough Hall, and now as mayor, I have been fighting to address the disparities in health care. As Brooklyn Borough President, I co-drafted and sponsored a bill that required every municipal building, including here at City Hall, to have a lactation room open during public business hours. Last year, I kept my election promise to expand New York City's doula program to 33 neighborhoods with the greatest needs across the city. We have also expanded the new Family Home Visits Initiative to 22,000 more families, giving families and mothers support from social workers, nurses, doulas, health educators, breastfeeding consultants, and mental health screeners. And while we are ensuring that our LGBTQI Plus and non-binary New Yorkers are getting their care and the care they need, the New York City Health Map is helping people find LGBTQI Plus care for primary care, sexual health care, and gender-affirming care such as blockers and hormone therapy. And let me be clear, abortion is and always will be legal in New York City. That is why when so much of the country is denying women access to the care they need, we launch the first in the nation city-run abortion access hub. The hub connects callers in New York and across the country to license New York City abortion care providers. We are ensuring everyone can get access to reproductive health care, no matter the color of their skin, their income bracket, their gender identity, or what state they come from. And we have invested upstream to take on the social and economic factors that widen the gender health gap. Last year, we launched our Housing, Our Neighborhoods Blueprint, and our Get Stuff Built Plan that gets New Yorkers into affordable housing quicker, along with our Child Care Blueprint to help working mothers and families. And we expanded the Earn Income Tax Credit for the first time in 20 years, putting $350 million in the pockets of hard-working New Yorkers. We have taken action where we can, but it's not enough. For New York City to truly be a model and lead the nation, we must go further. We know we don't have all the answers or the solutions. This isn't a speech where we're releasing a whole suite of new policies. Today, we're making a promise. And to fulfill that promise, we're going to turn to the experts who do have all the answers. First, we're going to focus on data and research. We're going to systematically track the progress of women's health in New York City. We're going to track rates of cancer, mental health conditions, and heart disease, as well as life expectancy. This data will inform our work moving forward, but women's health cannot change unless women are part of the conversation. So this March, I will convene a summit of leaders from all sectors, research, public health, healthcare, business, tech, the LGBTQI Plus community, and others, to build a comprehensive women's health program and agenda. We're going to hear from those directly impacted by the current system. The summit will focus on all aspects of women's health, from research and data collection to programming around chronic disease prevention, reproductive health, and mental health. And in the months after, we will release our ambitious women's health agenda. We are also going to look at ways we can make our city roads places more women's health friendly. We will convene a community and a committee to build an existing road that has led to increased access to lactation rooms and provided paid leave for cancer screenings. And we are going to change the stigma around menopause in this city. Historically, there's been taboo to talk about this issue. Not anymore. We're going to look at how we can create more menopause friendly road places from our city workers through improving policies and our buildings. And we will set an example for the rest of the state and the nation. We're going to promote access to health services focused on those going through all stages of menopause. New York City has always been a beacon of leadership in this nation, and we're going to continue to lead. Tomorrow, we will begin rolling out medication abortion at our city sexual health clinics. We're already providing medication abortion at 11 public hospitals citywide, and we are expanding the program to reach more New Yorkers. The first expansion will take place in the Bronx and would expand to Queens, Harlem and Brooklyn by the end of the year. No other city in the nation or in the world has a public health department that is providing medication abortion. We are the first. And this summer, we are going to launch a provider education campaign on maternal health with a focus on hypertension and diabetes. This campaign will entail direct outreach to providers in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. It will target neighborhoods that experience health and other social economic disparities. On top of this, we're going to launch a family based substance use disorder program that will support those who are pregnant and parenting while struggling with addiction. And finally, we're going to launch our sex education task force to help educate our young New Yorkers about their bodies and break taboos from an earlier age. New York City has been shaped by the tireless work of generations of women. And today, across all five boroughs, women are writing the story of our future. Shirley Chisholm once said that you don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, make progress by implementing ideas. We have been standing on the sidelines of women's health for too long. We're going to build a city that is here for all women and girls. A city where working mothers don't have to choose between a paycheck or nursing their newborn child. A city where workplaces allow for flexibility, paid family leave, and our women's health friendly. A city that remains a safe haven and a place where women's right to choose is protected. A city where women can get a diagnosis today, not in a decade. A city where black, Latino women no longer suffer from the inequities that deny them access and care. A city where our LGBTQI plus New Yorkers can get the health care they need. We must make sure that the women who have so often taken care of us are getting taken care of when they need it most. And there's no better place to start that than New York, the birthplace of feminism and the beacon of freedom for all.