Policy Recommendations to Advance Sex, Gender, and Reproductive Justice in New York City

SUMMARY

The Sex and the Law Committee (Natalie Birnbaum and Susan Cersovsky, Co-Chairs), the LGBTQ+ Rights Committee (Hayley Gorenberg and Jared Trujillo, Co-Chairs), joined by the Civil Rights Committee (Evan Henley and Molly Thomas-Jensen, Co-Chairs) and the Children and the Law Committee (Amy Hozer- Weber and Laura Diewald, Co-Chairs) sent a transition memo urging the Mamdani administration to treat sex, gender, and reproductive justice as core citywide priorities and presented recommendations across childcare, housing, civil rights enforcement, health care, and protections from gender‑based violence. Framing these issues as interconnected, the report emphasizes that women, LGBTQ+ people, parents, immigrants, and communities of color experience compounded harms from high childcare costs, housing instability, discrimination, and inequitable access to health services. Key recommendations include universal, neighborhood‑based free childcare with living wages for providers, stronger tenant protections and expansion of CityFHEPS housing vouchers, and a commitment to universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care, including for students and transgender youth.

The report also calls for structural reforms within City institutions to ensure rights are meaningfully enforced. It urges the City to fully rebuild and fund the NYC Commission on Human Rights so it can address discrimination promptly, reduce case backlogs, and expand mediation. The committees further recommend ending the practice of non‑consensual drug testing of pregnant and postpartum people and newborns, citing violations of bodily autonomy and racially disparate impacts, and urge support for pending state legislation to prohibit such testing. Finally, the report presses the City to implement long‑delayed recommendations under Local Law 109 (2019) to protect survivors and those at risk of female genital mutilation/cutting, recognizing it as a form of gender‑based violence requiring dedicated municipal action. Overall, the memo argues that sustained funding, policy alignment, and political commitment are necessary to achieve lasting gender and reproductive justice in New York City.

REPORT

REPORT BY THE SEX & LAW COMMITTEE, LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER & QUEER RIGHTS COMMITTEE, CHILDREN & THE LAW COMMITTEE, AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS COMMITTEE

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS AND PRIORITIES RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED TO THE MAMDANI ADMINISTRATION

We congratulate the Mayor on the election and want to take this opportunity to introduce our Committees. The Sex and Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association addresses issues of sex and gender as they interact with the formulation, operation, and impact of law and policy in New York City and State. The LGBTQ+ Rights Committee addresses legal and policy issues that affect LGBTQ+ individuals and communities. The Civil Rights Committee addresses civil rights and civil liberties matters including issues affecting racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, the rights of people with disabilities, and the scope and enforcement of antidiscrimination laws. The Children and the Law Committee addresses legal issues that impact upon the quality of life for children and families.

The Committees respectfully submit the following policy recommendations to Mayor Mamdani to further sex, gender, and reproductive justice in New York City: (1) free childcare across New York City, regardless of neighborhood, and increasing wages for childcare providers; (2) safe and affordable housing for all New York City parents to raise their children and for survivors of domestic violence; (3) rebuilding and adequately funding the City Commission on Human Rights; (4) a formal policy preventing non-consensual drug testing of pregnant people and new parents; (5) comprehensive sexual health services for New York City students; and (6) municipal protections for survivors of female mutilation and cutting. A summary of our recommendations is further detailed below.

I. CHILDCARE AS GENDER JUSTICE

The Committees expresses strong support for policies and programs that foster affordable communities for parents to raise their children, a core tenet of reproductive justice. Specifically, we applaud the administration’s plan to provide free childcare across New York City, specifically the administration’s recently announced plan to collaborate with New York State to both reform the current free childcare available for three-year-olds (“3k”), and expand the program to provide additional childcare to two-year-olds (“2k”).^[1] We recommend the administration continue to prioritize this policy through 2026 while also working to provide childcare for younger children—in part because of the immediate economic and social benefit it would have on women and underserved communities. In order to be most impactful, equitable, and sustainable, these childcare programs must be highly local, accessible, and provide living wages to childcare workers.

The cost of child care in New York City has risen dramatically since 2019, with the average cost of infant care increasing by 79% and the average cost of a childcare center increasing by 43%.^[2] The burden of this rise in costs disproportionately affects women, many of whom are leaving the workforce to care for their children. We urge you to continue prioritizing universal childcare and childcare subsidies during your tenure, as it is critical to ensure parents, particularly women and single-parent households, can participate in the city’s workforce while providing structured, safe environments for their children.

To enhance benefits to working mothers and single parents, this administration should focus on providing neighborhood-specific childcare to families. It is well documented that 3k in New York City has suffered from uneven availability,^[3] with families unable to secure seats even miles away from their homes.^[4] The administration’s promise to “add seats in neighborhoods where demand has not been met” and a continuation of its current efforts to provide additional resources in communities with seat shortages will be crucial to alleviating these issues, both for 3k and the anticipated launch of 2k.^[5]

Moreover, many of the benefits of 3k have not reached the highest poverty areas of the city, in part due to a lack of outreach notifying residents of its availability.^[6] With the recently announced financial expenditure from New York State specifically designated to address 3k deficiencies,^[7] the administration should focus its efforts on ensuring all New Yorkers have access to and awareness of free childcare within their neighborhoods.

The success of these programs is largely dependent on the sustainability and the vitality of the childcare workforce. The administration must simultaneously ensure that childcare workers earn livable wages. This would significantly impact women-of-color in New York, who represent an overwhelming majority of the childcare workforce. In New York City, 94% percent of childcare workers identify as female and over 90% percent identify as non-white.^[8] Currently, many childcare providers earn less than minimum wage and often rely on programs like SNAP and Medicaid, despite working full-time.^[9] Raising childcare workers’ wages to at least parity with wages for public school workers is critical to the programs’ sustainability. Increased wages will bolster the ability of childcare workers to stay on the job, leading to greater chances for success of universal childcare throughout New York City.

II. HOUSING AS GENDER JUSTICE

The Committees expresses support for the new administration’s plan to center the housing crisis in its policies and frame housing as the human right that it is. Mayor Mamdani made clear he plans on freezing the rent for rent-stabilized units and the Committee supports this action. Ever-increasing rent and inflation have caused this city to be nearly unlivable for millions of its residents.^[10]

Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, this crisis disproportionately affects women and people of color.^[11] Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women.^[12] We support Mayor Mamdani’s efforts to freeze rents, while simultaneously increasing quality and affordable housing, as it will directly help women gain autonomy and safety.

However, because rent-stabilized units only constitute about 43% of the City’s rental units,^[13] we urge the mayor to consider additional steps to protect tenants in non-rent-stabilized units from inequitable rent spikes and ensure they can access affordable housing. For this reason, we call on Mayor Mamdani stop fighting expansion of the CityFHEPS voucher program in Court. CityFHEPS vouchers are important alternative subsidies for families who do not have minors in the household or are otherwise ineligible for FHEPS. Despite his promise to sign the CityFHEPS expansion into law, the Mayor has now appealed an appellate decision in the plaintiffs’ favor to the Court of Appeals. We strongly encourage the Mayor to drop the appeal and sign the expansion into law or at least come to a favorable and meaningful settlement with the plaintiffs.

Expanding CityFHEPS eligibility will give women and minorities more opportunity and flexibility in their housing situations by not forcing them deeper into poverty and specific, often intrusive situations to make them eligible. Implementing the law is a relatively fast way for the mayor to meaningfully and substantially help thousands of New Yorkers facing eviction, and is an important measure in addressing gender justice and affordable housing.

III. REBUILDING THE CITY COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS TO SUPPORT GENDER JUSTICE

The Committees supports the rebuilding of the City Commission on Human Rights to ensure that the City’s expansive civil rights laws are enforced, thereby supporting sex, gender, and reproductive justice. Accordingly, we recommend that the Mamdani Administration take the following immediate steps:

1. Support the Commissioner’s Office. We urge the Administration to support the mission of the Commission and the rights of New Yorkers by supplying the Commissioner’s Office with the necessary tools, budget and otherwise, so the Commission can live up to its stated mission.
2. Increase the Commission’s annual budget. During the campaign, Mayor Mamdani pledged to fully fund the Commission. In a reversal, the Mayor now proposes a reduction of the Commission’s budget. We urge Mayor Mamdani to reconsider, and to fully fund the Commission in FY 2027. The Commission’s current budget (under $15M) is grossly inadequate. It leaves the Commission unable to intervene promptly to address discrimination in housing and employment, or to secure reasonable accommodations, resulting in homelessness and unemployment for vulnerable New Yorkers.^[14]   In the years immediately prior to the pandemic, CCHR’s budget peaked at $14 million, which adjusted for inflation is approximately $16.2 million today. This funding was clearly not sufficient before the pandemic, and the City government has failed to allocate this level of funding since. With that amount of funding CCHR was administratively closing 51% of the cases it closed in FY20, 60% in FY19, 68% in FY18, 65% in FY17, and 62% in FY16.
3. Release Funds and Exempt the Commission from PEGS (Programs to Eliminate the Gap). The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should immediately release the Commission’s entire FY 26 budget so that it can hire all open lines. Currently, the Commission has open lines that it cannot fill, which means that positions remain empty and staff is diminished through attrition and turnover.
4. Facilitate Hiring. The Commission is woefully understaffed. Line staff hires should be exempted immediately from the OMB approval process, to allow hiring to proceed without bureaucratic delay, and permit the Commission to hire at the top of its salary ranges for all lines, including both investigators and attorneys. Without this, the Commission will continue to lose strong candidates to legal services organizations and other employers;
5. Two Key Areas Requiring Significant Change: Backlog and Mediation Program. Far too many cases currently languish at the Commission, with a years-long wait for staff attention for investigation and enforcement. We recommend more Law Enforcement Bureau staffing, with a purposeful focus on reviewing languishing cases and moving them towards resolution within one year. Similarly, the Commission’s current mediation program has just one mediator. Mediation should be available to all interested parties in appropriate cases. Currently, the Commission only offers mediation where both parties are represented and will not mediate cases where the City is a respondent. These policies should be changed, and the Commission’s mediation program should be expanded to include at least ten experienced mediators.

IV. PROTECTING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BY PREVENTING NON-CONSENSUAL DRUG TESTING OF PREGNANT PEOPLE AND NEW PARENTS

The Committees supports the administration’s pledge to policies ensuring equitable access to reproductive health, rights, and justice for all New York City residents. We strongly believe preventing non-consensual drug testing of pregnant people and new parents is critical to fulfilling these promises.

One major way to protect reproductive health is by preventing non-consensual drug testing of pregnant people and new parents. Currently, many hospitals in New York^[15] conduct non-consensual drug testing on pregnant and post-partum people, as well as newborns. Hospital staff then reports those results to Child Protective Services (“test-and-report”)—a practice that became widespread during the War on Drugs.^[16] This non-consensual drug testing lacks informed consent, violates the bodily autonomy of the pregnant person, and deters people from seeking medical treatment by undermining the trust between patient and doctor. The practice also perpetuates racial disparities — studies show that, despite the fact that drug use occurs at approximately the same rate among black women and white women, the newborns of women of color are significantly more likely to be drug tested than newborns of white women.^[17] The current test-and-report practice is a poor public health strategy; it harms maternal-infant health, exacerbates racial and socioeconomic discrepancies in the family regulation system, and perpetuates the generational trauma of forced family separation.

Non-consensual drug testing on pregnant women and parents is in direct opposition to guidelines issued by major medical and public health associations, including national organizations and New York’s own Department of Health. Requiring informed consent prior to drug testing perinatal people and their newborns is crucial to ensure the fulfillment of New York’s already existing guidelines, the Reproductive Health Act, and New York’s Equal Rights Amendment.

For these reasons, we urge Mayor Mamdani to take concerted action to prevent non-consensual drug testing of pregnant people, post-partum people, and newborns. As an immediate action, we urge Mayor Mamdani to show support for the “Maternal Health, Dignity and Consent Act” (A.860/S.845), a pending Bill in the New York State Senate that would outlaw this practice.^[18]

V. ENSURE STUDENTS IN NEW YORK CITY RECEIVE COMPREHENSIVE SEXUAL HEALTH SERVICES

New York City has long been a haven for reproductive health care, yet profound inequities persist. Black and Brown women and birthing people continue to face unacceptably high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality. Young people struggle to access comprehensive, stigma-free sexual and reproductive health services. Immigrants, LGBTQIA+ communities, and people living in poverty encounter barriers at every turn.

We are asking that Mayor Mamdani work toward universal access to contraception, abortion care, and comprehensive sexuality education in schools, with attention to confidentiality and cultural humility. The mayor can do this by advocating for the passage of New York City Council Resolution 0202-2026. This resolution aims to expand funding for clinics that provide sexual and reproductive health services, and school-based health centers that provide such services in the context of holistic care for young people.^[19] It especially focuses on neighborhoods that are currently underserved. The administration should also emphasize compiling, distributing, and ensuring access to resources for transgender youth, given the current national assault on their rights and lives.

VI. PRIORITIZING MUNICIPAL PROTECTIONS FOR SURVIVORS OF FEMALE MUTILATION AND CUTTING

Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C) constitutes gender-based violence and is deemed a public health and humans rights issues in the United States and internationally.^[20] The administration should prioritize the formal review and implementation of recommendations established under Local Law 109 (2019), a legislative initiative developed in coordination with former Council Member Helen Rosenthal to address the needs of the estimated 65,000 women and girls at risk of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and “vacation cutting” in the New York metropolitan area. Although the multidisciplinary committee formed under the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV) finalized its comprehensive policy findings in April 2025,^[21] these critical insights were overlooked by the prior administration. By integrating these recommendations into the current executive agenda, the Mamdani administration can rectify this oversight, providing long-overdue municipal recognition and specialized resources to a vulnerable population that has historically lacked adequate city support.

Sex & Law Committee
Natalie Birnbaum, Co-Chair
Susan Cersovsky, Co- Chair

Civil Rights Committee
Evan Henley, Co-Chair
Molly Thomas-Jensen, Co-Chair

LGBTQ+ Committee
Jared Trujillio, Co- Chair
Hayley Gorenberg, Co-Chair

Children & the Law Committee
Amy Hozer-Weber, Co-Chair
Laura Diewald, Co-Chair

April 2026