Starting this week, NYC Health + Hospitals will offer patients the option of getting a medication abortion from home by consulting with a clinician via telemedicine and then receiving the pills in the mail. It’s the first public health system in the country to offer this option, rather than requiring an in-person appointment to get a prescription for the pills, according to City Hall.
The Adams administration’s decision to provide telemedicine abortions comes at a crossroads when the method is growing in popularity nationally but also faces a threat of being restricted by the Supreme Court.
“Access to safe, legal abortion care is the cornerstone of public health,” Mayor Eric Adams said Monday at a press conference on the announcement at City Hall. “In New York City, it will always be. We will not stand idly by while these attacks continue and the far right seeks to strip our citizens of their basic rights.”
Adams said the move was an effort to use technology to address “a major demand.” The service will be available via NYC Health + Hospitals’ Express Care program seven days a week between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., the mayor added. NYC Health + Hospitals will only mail pills to addresses within New York City, but hospital officials acknowledged that people from out-of-state could potentially work around that restriction by having pills mailed to friends or family here.
Abortion, including via telemedicine, is currently restricted or banned in many parts of the country, but since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Adams and other local officials have sought to position New York City as a haven for access, such as when City Hall paid for billboards to advertise abortion services to people in other states.
Planned Parenthood of Greater New York is also launching its own virtual health center this week, Wendy Stark, the organization’s CEO, announced at the press conference. But the organization is not currently offering telehealth for abortion.
An uncertain future…
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