Legislative Priorities

All individuals deserve equal access to safe, legal abortion, no matter their identity, background, or ability to afford care. In New York we must ensure that individuals living in, or forced to travel to, the state can safely access abortion care given the ever-changing abortion access landscape.  

• FY25 Budget Ask – Increase Medicaid Reimbursement Rate on Medication Abortion Care 

• FY25 Budget Ask – Maintain Abortion Access Grant Funding 

• Priority Legislation: A.361A (Gonzalez-Rojas)/S.348B (Cleare) – Reproductive Freedom and Equity Grant Program (Passed in Senate - January 2024) 

Equitable access to contraception and preventive care offer a range of benefits. Along with pregnancy prevention, it reduces pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality rates and lessens a person’s risk of developing certain reproductive cancers. All New Yorkers deserve access to the contraception method of their choosing and preventive care, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. 

• FY25 Budget Ask – Investment increase of 4% to the Family Planning Grant 

Each year, approximately 27,000 New Yorkers rely on PPHP for sexual and reproductive health care services, including birth control, gynecological care, HIV testing and prevention, STI testing and treatment, breast and cervical cancer screenings, PrEP and PEP, vasectomy, and transgender/non-binary hormone therapy. PPHP relies on federal, state, and local funding and reimbursement to serve all New Yorkers regardless of insurance, immigration status, or income. 

• FY25 Budget Ask – Investment increase of 4% to the Family Planning Grant 

Sexual education provides young people with tools and resources they need to make healthy, informed decisions about their lives and well-being. Students in New York State need sex education from grades K-12 that is age-appropriate, medically accurate, comprehensive, culturally responsive, and gender inclusive. 

• Priority Legislation: A.4604 (Gonzalez-Rojas) – Comprehensive sexuality education 

Despite legal protections, aggressive protester activity is an ongoing challenge for reproductive health centers, sometimes delaying and disrupting a patient’s access to time-sensitive services. We must enforce and strengthen laws to protect an individual’s safe access to reproductive health care facilities. 

• Call for Suffolk, Rockland, and Putnam counties to put in local protections, like Westchester County’s Reproductive Health Care Facilities Access Act 

Individuals who are incarcerated and those reintegrating into their communities face disproportionate health care disparities, including inadequate access to sexual and reproductive health care and counseling. This is especially true for individuals from marginalized communities. All people impacted by the prison system in New York must have access to the health care they need. 

Supportive Legislation 

• A.2155 (L. Rosenthal) - Prohibiting the Use of Restraints on People who are Pregnant, Birthing and Post Pregnancy  

• A.3483 (L. Rosenthal) - Supporting Breastfeeding and Nursery Access for Incarcerated Parents  

• S.7132 (Salazar)/A.7360 (Kelles) the Compassion and Reproductive Equity (CARE) Act

Currently, New York State’s Constitution is woefully outdated and inadequate in protecting New Yorkers from discrimination and promoting equality. The Constitution fails to protect historically marginalized groups, including individuals with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, women, and pregnant people from facing discrimination and successfully proving claims of discrimination. Including an Equal Rights Amendment in the state’s Constitution would broadly prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, age, national origin, disability, or sex including pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. 

• The NYS Equal Rights Amendment will be on the 2024 General Election Ballot. Learn more about the Equal Rights Amendment here. 

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, New York must ensure that both individuals forced to travel to the state and those living here are protected and that providers can provide the critical care they need without retribution. While New York and localities throughout the state have moved swiftly to pass legislation that protects and expands abortion care, more work needs to be done to protect patients and providers in the ever-changing abortion access landscape. 

Supportive Legislation 

• A.5297 (Paulin)/S.6616 (May) - Protecting Provider Conscience    

• A.4983-B (Rosenthal)/S.158-B (Kruger) - New York Health Information Privacy Act (Passed in Senate – January 2024)

All young people deserve access to safe and confidential health care, including sexual and reproductive health care services at school-based health centers (SBHCs), and in foster care and shelters. 

Supportive Legislation 

• S.6761 (Reyes) - Young People’s’ Access to Health Care  

Limited-Service Pregnancy Centers or Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) continue to use deceptive tactics that mislead New Yorkers and discourage them from seeking licensed medical care. PPHP advocates for stronger measures to hold CPCs accountable and ensure individuals can safely access care from a trusted provider. Learn more about Crisis Pregnancy Centers here. 

New York State law contains over a dozen criminal and civil provisions that punish adults who consent to sell or buy sex, as well as those who help and depend on them, not to mention the numerous prohibitions and punishments for prostitution in a wide variety of laws. Trying to stop sex work between consenting adults should not be the business of our criminal justice system. Criminalizing sex work criminalizes a means of survival for marginalized people, and it makes LGBTQ people especially vulnerable to police harassment and arrest based on their gender expression and sexuality. 

In New York, we must ensure that all individuals can safely access sexual and reproductive health care and information. This includes people with disabilities. Historically, people with disabilities have faced discrimination when navigating health care systems. PPHP continues to work to provide equitable health care to all and address the harmful legacies of systemic racism, ableism, and all forms of bias, and we support legislation that safeguards access to people with disabilities.  

Despite New York’s gains in reducing rates of HIV, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been concentrated in low-income communities of color. New York needs greater legislative, regulatory, and budgetary resources to improve structural support systems and mitigate systemic HIV disparities.