Governor Hochul Updates on Reproductive Health Rights

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul updated New Yorkers on reproductive health rights.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Two years ago, the Supreme Court sent shockwaves across America when it overturned Roe v. Wade. The Dobbs decision stripped away reproductive rights that millions of women had enjoyed over the past 50 years. We're still reeling from that decision.

In fact, in America today, one in three women live under an abortion ban. Women are being turned away from emergency rooms, being denied basic health care, even basic fertility treatments like IVF are under siege in many states. I have a simple message for those extreme politicians who think that this is something that they can take away here in New York: not now, not ever.

So, this is a fight we're always willing to take on on behalf of our women. In the aftermath of this decision two years ago, we enacted nation-leading laws. I convened the Legislature in an emergency session. We funded abortion services – $35 million more. We have laws in place to protect our providers. And we've also made sure that on the ballot this fall will be the Equal Rights Amendment that will enshrine many rights that we should never take for granted in this environment, including which is the right to reproductive freedom.

So, we're going to fight like hell to make sure that these freedoms that were stripped away are there for not just New Yorkers, but to help our sisters across the nation to have these rights restored as they take this fight to various state houses. And so, I just wanted to acknowledge that this has been a difficult, difficult two years for the women of our country because of what the Donald Trump Supreme Court did in robbing them of a basic human right.