Mayor Koch Used NY City Funds to Finance Abortions for Low Income Women

Steven A. Levine

Coordinator for Educational Programs

          The politics of birth control and abortion continue to dominate the debate in Washington as the controversy over the federal birth control mandate and its application to Catholic hospitals and universities stays on the front page of The New York Times.  (See "Obama Tries to Ease Ire on Contraception Rule")   In "Planned Parenthood, Worthy of Continued Financial Support,"  former Mayor Edward I. Koch commented on Susan G. Komen for the Cure's  attempt to cut off funds for Planned Parenthood breast cancer screenings and then recounted his own decision on city funding of abortions using documents unearthed at the La Guardia and Wagner Archives.

In 1976 Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, which banned the use of federal funds for abortion, except for when the life of the mother was in danger.  (Exceptions were later extended to rape and incest.)  This cutoff of funds affected low income women on Medicaid.  New York State (with financing evenly split between City and State) agreed to fund "medically necessary" abortions through Medicaid.  Koch went further, arguing that "no woman in New York City who wants to have an abortion will be denied the opportunity to have an abortion due to an inability to pay."  In January 1978 he agreed to finance "elective abortions" through City funds.  By 1988 New York State and City were each spending $6 million on abortion through Medicaid and the City spent an additional $6.9 million for abortions by low income women not covered by  Medicaid, directly funding 22,700 abortions that year.

Birth Control Politics: 1958 and 2012

Steven A. Levine
Coordinator for Educational Programs


            The New York Times article "Outcry Grows Fiercer After Funding Cut by Cancer Group" highlights the continuing controversy over birth control and abortion politics after the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation announced it had cut funds to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings.  Birth control had already become a major issue in national politics when the Obama Administration mandated that birth control must be available free of cost in all health plans.  This rule included no exemption for religious employers opposed to birth control if they served a large number of people of different faiths, such as Catholic hospitals and universities.  (See The New York Times "Ruling on Contraception Draws Battle Lines at Catholic Colleges")

            In the late 1950s, Mayor Robert F. Wagner faced a similar controversy in New York's public hospitals.  In May 1958, The New York Times reported that there was an unwritten prohibition against prescribing birth control in public hospitals.  Wagner's Commissioner of Hospitals Morris A. Jacobs denied this and stated that "There shall be no interference in proper and accepted therapeutic practices nor intervention in ethical relationships between patient and physician."   Despite this statement, Jacobs refused to allow a doctor at Kings County Hospital in July to fit a diabetic patient with a contraceptive device to protect her health. According to New York State law at that time, birth control could only be given if pregnancy was "deleterious to the health of the patient," a policy laid out in a draft Department of Health policy statement  in 1963.

            This situation placed Wagner in a quandary both politically and religiously.  Protestant and Jewish organizations, as well as Planned Parenthood and the New York Civil Liberties Union, were lobbying to lift the ban on contraception in public hospitals, while the Catholic Church was adamantly opposed.  A consensus politician who avoided conflict, Wagner left the decision to the Board of Hospitals stating, "I am a practicing Catholic. As a Catholic, I would be opposed to the use of contraceptives in city hospitals.  But I have not discussed it with the commissioner or with members of the board."

            The debate continued throughout the summer, with Wagner refusing to intervene.   When the Board of Hospitals met in September, it voted to reverse the policy.  Wagner's position, while sincere, was also shrewd.  In all likelihood, the outcome was what he desired.  He may not have been in direct communication with the commissioner or the Board of Hospitals, but he did know how to count votes and predict the outcome.    Wagner believed in letting professionals decide what was the correct health policy and was able to separate his personal views as a Catholic from the decision.  Not coincidentally, his liberal supporters were able to get the policy they wanted, while Wagner was able to distance himself from it and limit the political damage he took among Catholics and conservatives.  

This Date in History App for Android and Apple

I am proud to announce the release of the CUNY/New York Times in College This Date in History App developed by the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives for both Apple and Android platforms.   Using the milestones and photos from this year's and earlier calendars/websites, the Archives has created an app which delivers daily fascinating events in U.S. history for every day of the year.  I hope you'll download it and let us know what you think.  

Marijuana Legalization Arguments Similar to La Guardia's Arguments Against Prohibition

Steven A. Levine

Coordinator for Educational Programs

Ninety three years ago this month the 18^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, banning the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors."  Congressman Fiorello H. La Guardia was a major opponent of prohibition. In the 1926 photo below you can see him mixing "near beer" with malt tonic to create 2% beer to demonstrate how easily Prohibition could be flouted.    In his article "Prohibition: A National Farce" (March 1927 "A Smokers Companion"), La Guardia argued that Prohibition was impossible to enforce, led to criminality, and cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue.  In  "Marijuana Push in Colorado Likens It to Alcohol," The New York Times reports similar arguments being made by proponents of marijuana legalization, "Banning or improperly regulating a substance that large numbers of people will use anyway failed in the 1920s with alcohol - with the spread of speakeasies and corruption during Prohibition - and is failing now with marijuana, they say."

Fiorello La Guardia pouring beer at his congressional office, June 1926.  

The La Guardia and Wagner Archives explores these issues in our "Unforgiving Economy" calendar/website  in a month called "The Underground Economy," and developed a lesson in our Women's Leadership Curriculum on temperance and prohibition, called 19th Century Reformers Ida Wells-Barnett and Frances E. Willard.

Below are some other interesting links related to that theme:

An Identity Thief at Age 18:  

America Goes Dry With Prohibition:  

Gangster Al Capone Exploits Prohibition:   

Assignment Discovery Shorts: Prohibition Makes Chicago Corrupt:  

The Unforgiving Economy 2012 Calendar and Website

Steven A. Levine 
Coordinator for Educational Programs

The Archives is proud to announce the release of  "The Unforgiving Economy" website, based on our 2012 calendar.  Available in both English and Spanish, it is an economic history of the United States with beautiful and striking photos and artwork.  Please check it out and let us know what you think.

Civil Rights in New York City: In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Steven A. Levine
Coordinator for Educational Programs

Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott are welcomed by Robert F. Wagner at City Hall upon King's return to the U.S. after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, December 18, 1964. 

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

In the spring of 1963, Birmingham, Alabama was the focal point of the civil rights movement.  Mass demonstrations, sit-ins and protests led to the arrest of hundreds, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by the brutal police force of Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor. 

            With the nation's attention focused on Birmingham, New York's Fur and Leather and Machine Workers Union organized a Rally for Equality on May 28^th, 1963 to support the civil rights struggles in the South.  Scheduled to speak at the event was Mayor Robert F. Wagner. What was striking about his speech was not Wagner's support for the freedom struggle in the South, but for its focus on civil rights in New York City.  He declared "If all we are going to do for the freedom fighters of the South is to express our sympathy for them, that might be helpful, but it wouldn't be enough.  It might even be considered a little hypocritical?" 

He used the rally to recommit his administration to fighting discrimination in New York City, issuing an executive memorandum directing all city agencies and departments "to review and re-assess all their present programs and activities pertaining to equal rights and opportunities for all" with the goal of expanding them or launching new ones.  Wagner was sincere, but he was also responding to a growing civil rights movement organizing to desegregate housing and public schools, end discrimination in employment, and empower New York's growing African-American and Latino populations.

Wagner's speech was a harbinger for the increasing polarization of New York City on racial issues.  Even as he gave his speech, his office had created a folder for "hate mail" from people opposed to his civil rights initiatives and his support for the movement in the South. (Sample) Simultaneously, the slow pace of change was leading to greater anger and impatience in the African-American community.  A year later, the NYPD would be putting down an uprising/riot in the streets of Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant, after an off-duty police officer shot and killed an unarmed African-American high school student.

 

 

 

PUBLIC HOUSING: New York Transformed 1939-1967 Web Exhibit

Steven A. Levine

Coordinator for Educational Programs

Smith Houses under construction -- the tall grayish buildings to the

           right of the Brooklyn Bridge, January 19, 1950. ID# 02.003.11282              

                                                                                                    

I hope you'll check out "PUBLIC HOUSING: New York Transformed 1939-1967" on our website at http://www.laguardiawagnerarchive.lagcc.cuny.edu/NYCHA_PHOTO_GALLERY.aspx

The exhibit uses the La Guardia and Wagner Archives unparalleled collection of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) photo negatives with commentary by Professor Joel Schwartz to document the history of public housing and how it changed the fabric of New York City.  The photos are not only of public housing, but of the buildings, people and street life of the neighborhoods before public housing was built.

It is now a highlight on the Archives' NYCHA web page http://www.laguardiawagnerarchive.lagcc.cuny.edu/COLLECTIONS.aspx?ViwType=1&ColID=2, where you can see more photos of public housing and New York City.

Please leave a comment if you would like to know more about the NYCHA Collection or the history of public housing in New York City history.