NEW YORK — Women living in New York City — and also those visiting from out of town — will now be able to access abortion telehealth services and have abortion pills delivered to their doors through the city’s public hospitals network.

Mayor Eric Adams announced the new policy in the City Hall rotunda Monday morning and made clear that it comes as a direct response to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“Access to safe, legal abortion care is the cornerstone to public health, and in New York City it will always be,” Adams said. “We will not stand idly by as these attacks continue and the far right seeks to strip our citizens of their basic rights.”

The new services, which began Monday, allow women to schedule appointments with health care providers through the city’s Health + Hospitals Virtual ExpressCare system. After an assessment and counseling, patients can then receive medication to induce an abortion within days if medical professionals deem it clinically appropriate.

To receive the services, though, patients must attest to be located within the five boroughs at the time of the telehealth call and must also attest that they will be in the city when they take the medication.

After Roe v. Wade was struck down, conservative-leaning states quickly began passing laws curtailing women’s access to abortions. Some, like Alabama, have gone so far as to threaten to prosecute those who help women travel for abortions.

Leaders in New York State and in the city took the opposite stance and moved to further guarantee the right to abortions locally. Since the Supreme Court decision, the city has rolled out an Abortion Access Hub to refer callers to abortion care and signed into law a measure guaranteeing access to safe and affordable abortions in the five boroughs.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear cases on abortion rights in the new judicial term that began Monday.

Asked if there could be any legal ramifications posed by the new policy, Dr. Marisa Nádas, the associate medical director of H+H’s Virtual ExpressCare program, acknowledged that the city expects women from out of state to take advantage of the new policy, given the circumstances.

Dr. Marisa Nádas, the associate medical director of H+H’s Virtual ExpressCare program.

She said the program will assist patients calling from outside the city, but won’t be able to “prescribe them a telehealth medication abortion.”

“We will help them connect to care so that they’re still able to access the abortion that they need,” she said. “All over the country, people are traveling in order to access abortion care.”

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