One Brooklyn
October 29, 2020
Brooklyn, NY – Today, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams released testimony that he delivered yesterday on two bills in the City Council, both introduced at his request, at a joint hearing held by the City Council’s Committee on Women and Gender Equity and the Committee on Health on “Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in New York City.”
There were multiple bills before the committee during the hearing. The two bills Borough President Adams testified on were Intro 1662, sponsored by Council Member Robert Cornegy, relating to the training and inspection of lactation rooms, and Intro 18288, sponsored by Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel relating to establishing a committee on female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C).
“At a time when the Federal government is taking an increasingly hostile stance toward the rights of women to control their own bodies, the City needs to step up and serve as a beacon that safeguards hard-won gender and reproductive freedoms. I am proud to be supporting Intro 1662, a necessary complement to the groundbreaking legislation this Council passed in 2016 requiring lactation rooms in certain public buildings to ensure these rooms are safe and sanitary, and Intro 1828, which will proactively address the public health issue of FGM/C, which affects thousands of women throughout the US. I thank my colleagues in the City Council for holding this important hearing,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.
Borough President Adams noted in his testimony that Brooklyn Borough Hall was one of the first municipal government buildings in the city to provide a lactation lounge open to the public, which debuted in 2015. Legislation passed by the City Council the following year required lactation rooms in certain public buildings throughout New York City. Intro 1662 would build on these successes, requiring the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to provide mandatory annual training to staff at locations required to make lactation rooms available. It would also require DOHMH to inspect the lactation rooms at least quarterly for cleanliness, safety, and accessibility. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), breastfeeding has the potential to prevent more than 800,000 deaths in children under the age of five. By providing those who express breast milk a safe and clean space to lactate, we are creating a culture of healthier children.
Borough President Adams also urged the passage of Intro 1828, which would establish a committee on female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) within the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV). The committee would be responsible for preparing and implementing a comprehensive strategy to prevent and eliminate the practice of FGM/C among individuals and communities in the City. In his testimony, Borough President Adams remarked that while FGM/C may seem like a practice that exclusively happens abroad, statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that half a million women and girls have undergone or are at risk of female genital mutilation in the United States. Sixty-five thousand of those women and girls at risk live in the New York City metropolitan area.
The full testimony is available here.
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