New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer (D) signed onto an initiative to allocate money from the city budget to directly fund abortion care, according to City & State New York.

While 17 states, including New York, already allow abortion coverage under Medicaid programs, New York would be the first city to fund it. Abortion rights groups have pushed since last fall for the city to invest $250,000 into the nonprofit New York Abortion Access Fund, but Stringer said he was inspired to sign on by a series of restrictive abortion laws in states including Georgia and Ohio, which banned abortions at six weeks, and Alabama, which banned them in almost all cases except when the mother’s life is threatened.

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“Our city budget is a reflection of who we are as a city, what our priorities are for the future,” Stringer told the publication. “And to be the first city in the nation to fight back with direct funding could change the course of history in America.”

Stringer told the publication he hoped the city could set a precedent if the initiative was successful.

“Like many first-time initiatives, you measure the success of that initiative, and if it’s working, you keep funding it. That’s sort of my job too. We’ll look at, have we made an impact?” he told City & State. “I’m very excited that if New York does this first, perhaps LA, Atlanta, San Francisco, big cities and then perhaps small cities who are feeling the heat against a woman’s right to choose [will follow].”