New York (WABC) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams outlined his vision for the city’s women’s health agenda, which he said seeks to eliminate decades of systemic inequities that have negatively impacted women across the city.
Adams joined healthcare leaders on Tuesday to share plans and ideas to help close the gaps created by lack of access to care, lack of inclusion and lack of innovation.
“Health and healthcare have long been male-centric, but that’s changing today,” Mayor Adams said. “We’ve been on the fringes of women’s health for too long, and I’ve seen firsthand how the health system is failing our women. It’s long overdue for us to break taboos and make New York City a model for the future of women’s healthcare. We A city that works for all women and girls will be built.”
Many women in New York City and around the globe live with preventable health problems and face very different challenges.
In New York City, for example, the average maternal mortality rate among black pregnant women is more than nine times that of white pregnant women.
To help eliminate these inequalities, some of Adams’ pledges include:
The city-run Morrisania Sexual Health Clinic in the Bronx will begin offering abortion pills to individuals starting Wednesday.
Several other community clinics in Crown Heights (Brooklyn), Central Harlem (Manhattan) and Jamaica (Queens) will begin dispensing by the end of the year.
Dennis Post, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, said in a statement:
“No woman with a pregnancy in crisis should feel like abortion is her only option. Yet instead of helping women who want to keep their children, our elected leaders are selling them the abortion pill. This policy is a Abandonment of women who may just need help from the government to choose life for their children.”
State Conservative Party Chairman Gerald Kassar added, “This is abortion tourism. New York has gone too far on abortion.”
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in women, while breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women (after skin cancer) and the second leading cause of cancer death in women (after lung cancer).
An analysis by DOHMH showed that the same rate was associated with Latino women (26 percent and 28 percent, respectively), white women (20.6 percent and 25.6 percent), and Asian women (13 percent and 21.9 percent, respectively).
Experts say there are many reasons for the inequality, including the quality of medical training and available services, as well as clinical research historically done on men and then misapplying those findings to women.
“This week marks a painful anniversary as we commemorate 50 years of protecting reproductive rights through Roe v. Wade,” said DOHMH Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan. “Instead of focusing on what is lost, we will focus on what is being gained for women’s health Progress, and mobilize every sector of our city to participate in this cause. As a husband, father of daughter, ally, and physician, it is my hope that our city will be a beacon for women’s health now and for generations to come. We don’t have to wait another year. “
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