California Gov. Gavin Newsom answers questions at a news conference in Los Angeles on June 9th. (Photo AP / Richard Vogel / Archive)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law Friday that strengthens abortion rights in the state, following the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
When he signed the bill, Newsom described feeling “angry, resolute and angry.”
“This would never happen if men were the ones to have babies, never, and you know it, and I know it. Every damn person knows that. And that’s the elephant in the room,” Newsom said. “Because in this country women are treated as second-class citizens. Women are treated as less than. Women are not as free as men. This is very sick. “
The new California law, passed Thursday by the state legislature, will create a protective shield against any possible out-of-state civil action for anyone who performs, assists, or receives an abortion in the state. AB 1666 will protect not only California residents, but also anyone visiting the state seeking reproductive health care.
The new law is just one of more than a dozen bills making their way into the legislature, aimed at strengthening and protecting access to abortion. Other bills will propose to focus on the root causes of reproductive health inequalities, improve privacy protections, and allow qualified professional nurses to provide abortions during the first trimester.
Anger over the court’s opinion was not limited to Newsom.
“This decision is unique. It’s historic. It’s unprecedented in a horribly tragic way,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “This decision is an attack on privacy, on freedom, on self-determination in equality. This decision is an attack on women. It is an attack on women’s equality. It’s an attack on pregnant people. “
Bonta and Newsom joined other lawmakers determined to strengthen state laws and ensure women in other states with more restrictive laws know they can come to California to seek health care.
“California is a safe haven for those seeking care for abortion. Abortion is still totally legal in California. Today’s decision does not affect our state’s laws. Here you are entitled to an abortion,” he said. Good. “In California, we refuse to turn back the clock and let radical ideologies exercise control over your body.”
“This is a dark day for our girls and all our boys who will now come of age in a nation with fewer rights, fewer freedoms and less protections than previous generations,” Bonta said, in a voice tremulous. “This is not progress.”
California has also introduced an amendment that adds reproductive health care as a fundamental right to the state constitution, which will go to voters in November.
The amendment states: “The state shall not deny or interfere with a person’s reproductive freedom in his or her most intimate decisions, which includes his or her fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and his or her fundamental right to choose or This section aims to promote the constitutional right to privacy guaranteed by section 1, and the constitutional right not to be denied the same protection guaranteed by section 7. Nothing in this document reduces or limits the right to privacy or equal protection. ”
“I hope that if nothing else, this decision will wake people up,” the California governor said.
“This is not just about choice, not just reproductive freedom,” Newsom insisted, mentioning marital equality, interracial marriage and transgender rights. “Then they will come after you,” he warned.