ICYMI: State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett’s Op-Ed in Elle Magazine: Without My Abortion, I Would Not Be New York’s Health Commissioner

ALBANY, N.Y. (June 21, 2022) – Today, Elle.com published an op-ed by State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett who, for the first time, shares her personal abortion story publicly and discusses the critical importance of safe abortion access for all in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's pending judgment on Dobbs v. Jackson. An excerpt of the op-ed is available below and the full text can be viewed online here.

Today, abortion is a difficult issue. But when I needed an abortion as a medical student in 1979, it was not a difficult decision for me.

I was at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, preparing to enter what was sure to be a grueling internship in internal medicine at Harlem Hospital. Up and through this point, I had spent my entire young adult life—eight years of schooling and countless hours working, studying, and testing—readying to be a doctor, not a parent. I was almost there...

The full text can be viewed online here.