Case 1:20-Cv-00323-LY Document 49-2 Filed 04/02/20 Page 1 of 34
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Case 1:20-cv-00323-LY Document 49-2 Filed 04/02/20 Page 1 of 34 EXHIBIT 12 Case 1:20-cv-00323-LY Document 49-2 Filed 04/02/20 Page 2 of 34 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS AUSTIN DIVISION PLANNED PARENTHOOD CENTER FOR CHOICE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. No. 1:20-cv-00323-LY GREG ABBOTT, in his official capacity as Governor of Texas, et al., Defendants. DECLARATION OF MARY TRAVIS BASSETT, M.D., M.P.H., IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION I, Mary Travis Bassett, M.D., M.P.H. declare as follows: 1. I am the Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud (“FXB”) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, as well as the FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. I am offering this declaration on my own behalf and not on that of Harvard University or other professional organizations that are noted. 2. I served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) from 2014–2018 and led New York’s response to the Ebola pandemic. I also led DOHMH as the City responded to a large outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease and the Zika outbreak in South America and the Caribbean. Previously, I had been the Program Director for the African Health Initiative and the Child Well-Being Program at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (2009–2014). Prior to that, I served as Deputy Commissioner of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (2002– 2009). Case 1:20-cv-00323-LY Document 49-2 Filed 04/02/20 Page 3 of 34 3. My awards and honors include the Frank A. Calderone Prize in Public Health, a Kenneth A. Forde Lifetime Achievement Award from Columbia University, a Victoria J. Mastrobuono Award for Women’s Health, and the National Organization for Women’s Champion of Public Health Award. I am an elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine. For over a decade, I served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Public Health. My recent publications include articles in The Lancet and in the New England Journal of Medicine addressing structural racism and health inequities in the United States. My complete curriculum vitae is attached as Exhibit A. 4. I am a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, a group of experts established at the request of Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), to help inform the federal government on critical science and policy issues related to emerging infectious diseases and other twenty-first century health threats, currently focused on COVID-19. See Nat’l Acads. of Scis., Eng’g & Med., Standing Committee on Emerging Infection Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats (last updated Mar. 28, 2020), https://www.nationalacademies.org/our- work/standing-committee-on-emerging-infectious-diseases-and-21st-century-health- threats#sectionPublications. My areas of teaching and research include focus on reducing socio- economic and racial inequalities in health. I have written several newspaper perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic, including in the Washington Post and New York Times, where I note the racial and economic disparities in vulnerability to COVID-19. 5. I have reviewed the Declaration of Joshua Sharfstein, M.D., in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction, and I agree with the opinions set forth therein. 2 Case 1:20-cv-00323-LY Document 49-2 Filed 04/02/20 Page 4 of 34 6. My recent service as Commissioner of DOHMH underscores the reasons why Texas’s implementation of its executive order is profoundly misguided as a public health measure aimed at conserving personal protective equipment (“PPE”) and hospital resources. New York City is the current epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and the public health challenges of the crisis are very real. But for all of the reasons explained in Dr. Sharfstein’s declaration, prohibiting abortion services is not an effective way to conserve PPE or hospital resources. Even aside from the harm to the patients who are denied access to timely care, patients who are forced to obtain a procedure later in pregnancy are likely to have a procedure that requires the use of more PPE. And if patients travel to another state to try to end their pregnancies, again PPE is not conserved. 7. Implementing a public health policy that increases the likelihood that patients will travel to try to get an abortion elsewhere is particularly counterproductive. The single most effective thing people can do to slow the spread of COVID-19 and “flatten the curve” is to avoid unnecessary contact and travel. Over two dozen states have issued “shelter in place” or “stay at home” orders in order to accomplish this. And if patients succeed in obtaining an abortion in another state, then of course there has been no net savings of PPE. To the contrary, by potentially exposing patients and others with whom they come in contact to increased risk of contagion, the net effect of forcing patients to travel is to deplete both PPE and other hospital resources. 8. In the years before abortion was available in every state, patients who were able to do so traveled from across the country to obtain an abortion in New York City. The prospect of large numbers of patients traveling from Texas to other states during the current pandemic crisis is truly frightening from a public health perspective. 3 Case 1:20-cv-00323-LY Document 49-2 Filed 04/02/20 Page 5 of 34 9. Access to health care varies by income and employment status and contributes to longstanding disparities in health status. While inadvisable from a public health perspective to travel to seek care during the COVID-19 outbreak, only patients with the resources required to do so will have this option. This means that resources and not a woman’s preference may determine access to care. 10. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on: April 2, 2020 4 Case 1:20-cv-00323-LY Document 49-2 Filed 04/02/20 Page 6 of 34 EXHIBIT A Case 1:20-cv-00323-LY Document 49-2 Filed 04/02/20 Page 7 of 34 Case 1:20-cv-00323-LY Document 49-2 Filed 04/02/20 Page 8 of 34 Board Certification and Licensure Board Qualification 1983 Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine Candidate 089171 Licensure 1981 New York (active) Committees, Professional Organizations and Societies Member National Academy of Medicine (inducted 2018) Member The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard C-CHANGE) (2020-present). Member Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee, Food and Drug Administration (February 2018-August 31 2018) Member National Academy of Medicine (2017-present) Member Advisory Board, New York University College of Global Public Health (2017-present) Member Board of Directors, Truth Initiative (2017-present) Member External Advisory Board, NYU School of Medicine, Department of Population Health (2016-present) Chair NYC Board of Health (2014-2018) Chair and President Board of Directors, Fund for Public Health in New York City (2014- 2018) Member Committee on Planning the Assessment/Evaluation of HIV/AIDS Programs Implemented Under United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 (2008-2013) Associate Editor American Journal of Public Health (2002- 2014) International Editor American Journal of Public Health (2000- 2002) Member American Public Health Association (1998-present) Academic Appointments/Employment 2018- present Director and FXB Professor of Public Health Practice Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston, Massachusetts 2014- 2018 Commissioner New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene New York, New York 2 Case 1:20-cv-00323-LY Document 49-2 Filed 04/02/20 Page 9 of 34 2009-2014 Program Director African Health Initiative and Child Well-Being Prevention Program Doris Duke Charitable Foundation New York, New York 2002-2009 Deputy Commissioner, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene New York, New York 2001-2002 Associate Director, Health Equity Rockefeller Foundation Southern Africa Office 1995-2018 Associate Professor, Clinical Public Health and Clinical Medicine Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons (on leave) New York, New York 1985-2005 Department of Community Medicine University of Zimbabwe Harare, Zimbabwe 1985-1991 Lecturer 1992-2000 Senior Lecturer (on leave 1987-88, 1995- 97) 2000-2005 Associate Professor (on leave 2001-05) 1997-2001 Research Associate, Department of Medicine Stanford University Medical Center Stanford, California 1995-1997 Director, Harlem Center for Disease Prevention Columbia School of Public Health New York, New York 1987-1988 Attending Physician, Department of Medicine Harlem Hospital Center New York, New York Honors 2019 Public Health Hall of Fame. Public Health Solutions 2019 Stephen Smith Award. New York Academy of Medicine 2019 Elisabeth B. Weintz Humanitarian Award, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative 2018 Notable Women in Health Care, Crain’s New York Business 3 Case 1:20-cv-00323-LY Document 49-2 Filed 04/02/20 Page 10 of 34 2018 John Dewey Award for Distinguished Service, Bard Prison Initiative 2017 Kenneth A. Forde Lifetime Achievement Award, Columbia University 2017 Baseball Leadership Award, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health 2017 Beny J.