Politics & Government
NYC Will Defy Abortion 'Gag Rule,' Reject Federal Funds: Mayor
NYC public hospitals will keep counseling patients about abortion and turn down federal funding tied to a rule that bars such advice.
NEW YORK — New York City will defy the Trump administration's so-called gag rule and reject federal hospital funding that would bar doctors from discussing abortions with patients, city officials said Friday.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule in February that bans doctors from counseling patients about their abortion options if they receive federal funding from Title X, a grant program that covers family planning services.
NYC Health + Hospitals, the city's public hospital system, will turn down $1.3 million in Title X funding so that its doctors and nurses can keep referring patients to abortion and other reproductive health services, Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration said. The city will replace the lost federal money, officials said.
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"This is as cynical as it gets — taking away money that would help people to be healthy because our doctors our nurses our health care professionals simply want to be able to tell the truth," de Blasio, a Democrat who's also running for president, said at a Friday news conference.
The move marks a concrete step by the city to protest the rule following its efforts to beat it back in court.
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New York in April joined 14 other cities and counties in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in a federal lawsuit challenging the rule's constitutionality. The lawsuit had blocked the implementation of the rule but a federal appeals court allowed it to take effect last week, the mayor's office said.
Some 75,000 New Yorkers rely on the city's public hospitals for reproductive health care, de Blasio said. The hospital system offers services such as contraceptive counseling and abortion services up to the second trimester of pregnancy, according to the mayor's office.
"NYC Health + Hospitals delivers essential services to New Yorkers, and we will not let the federal government tell us how to limit the health care options for our patients," Dr. Mitchell Katz, the hospital system's president and CEO, said in a statement.
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