SCA 10 was passed by the California State Assembly this week and now heads to the November ballot.
By ONME Newswire
SACRAMENTO, CA – In November, California voters will have an opportunity to amend the state’s constitution to include the right to an abortion.
This week, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to further protect women coming to California from other states.
“California will not back down from the fight to protect abortion rights as more than half the states in this country, enabled by the Supreme Court, ban or severely restrict access,” said Governor Newsom. “We are ensuring Californians will have the opportunity this November to enshrine the right to choose in our state constitution. And we’re not waiting until November to take action, today’s executive order ensures that the state will not hand over patients who come here to receive care and will not extradite doctors who provide care to out-of-state patients here. In California, women will remain protected.”
The order signed this week prevents any information, including medical records and patient data, from being shared by state agencies or departments in response to inquiries or investigations brought by other states or individuals within those states looking to restrict access. The state is expanding efforts to protect women seeking abortions or reproductive care as well as anyone assisting those women.
SCA 10 was passed by the California State Assembly this week and now heads to the November ballot. A copy of the executive order can be found here.
Within hours of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the 1973 landmark decision, Roe v. Wade last Friday, Governor Newsom signed legislation to help protect patients and providers in California from civil liability for providing, aiding, or receiving abortion care in the state. In addition, Governor Newsom and the governors of Oregon and Washington launched a new Multi-State Commitment to defend access to reproductive health care and protect patients and providers.
The budget agreement announced this week includes more than $200 million in additional funding for reproductive health care services. Governor Newsom recently signed legislation eliminating copays for abortion care services and has signed into law a legislative package to further strengthen access and protect patients and providers.
The 1973 reversed decision of legalizing abortion shocked the nation when a draft of the upcoming Supreme Court decision was leaked in May. The reverse Roe v. Wade decision now gives states the authority to decide on abortion’s legality--minority women throughout the nation will be the ones primarily affected.
For instance, Black people make up about 38 percent of Mississippi’s population, according to recent Census data, but they accounted for 74 percent of abortions in the state in 2019, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Alabama’s figures are similar, with Black people accounting for about 27 percent of the state’s population but 62 percent of abortions.
Black infants were about twice as likely as white infants to die during the first year of life in Mississippi, according to the March of Dimes.
According to CalMatters, California wasn’t always a bastion for reproductive rights. It took decades of black market abortions, a national rubella epidemic, an international drug scandal, several high-profile trials against physicians, and thousands of maternal deaths for California to decriminalize abortion. In fact, abortion remained illegal in the state until 1967, when then-Gov. Ronald Reagan signed the Therapeutic Abortion Act.
Previously, many in California delved south of the border where a black market abortion industry boomed in Mexico, spurred by the 1953 Buffum decision. But the illegal procedures came at a high cost: Post-procedure infections, complications and death were common.
In the ensuing years, California has garnered the distinction of being the state that goes furthest to allow easy access to abortion.