Staff Reports
On Friday, representatives from 24 different states' Planned Parenthood affiliates met in Sacramento to begin formulating a plan to ensure the organization's ability to continue providing abortion services and raise funds in the wake of the Trump administration's decision to defund the entire program. Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court.
Their plan is to model themselves after the liberals in California, where legislators have passed some of the most protective abortion laws in the country this year, leading up to a statewide election this autumn that would make abortion a constitutional right in the nation's most populous state.
Attorney General Rob Bonta of California told a group of 25 leaders in a hotel meeting room in Sacramento, with another 30 actually watching, that pro-abortion campaigners could channel the ruthless energy of anti-abortion advocates — but not as a strategy to hurt people.
In response to the Roe ruling, radical abortion activists have carried out a wave of violence and intimidation, including the arson bombing of pro-life groups and churches. Conservative Supreme Court justices have been the target of activist harassment and doxxing, and an effort on Justice Brett Kavanaugh's life was made.
States that oppose individual liberty have been playing a long game. According to Bonta, they have spearheaded a brutal and concerted onslaught on reproductive freedom. It's high time that we get in on the action as well.
However, the rest of the country will face significant challenges in trying to replicate California's successes. This year, after the Supreme Court reversed its historic decision from 1973, which had practically legalized abortion across the country, leftists in the government of California, which is ruled by leftists, raced to approve new legislation that would expand access to abortion.
Even though Joe Biden, the Democratic Vice President and current Vice President of the United States, is pro-choice, the Democrats only have razor-thin majorities in both the House and the Senate. These advantages could be eliminated after the midterm elections in November.
Even in the event that the Democrats manage to keep control of the U.S. Senate, they probably still wouldn't have enough votes to prevent Republicans from obstructing abortion legislation. House Democrats have already voted to approve a bill that would legalize abortion across the country, but they are unable to convince a Senate with 50 votes to do the same.
Our ability to influence events from the inside can only take us so far. House Minority Leader and San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi said in a video message to the organization on Friday, we also need your external mobilization to mobilize supporters at the grassroots level, as you do so effectively.
In an interview, Jodi Hicks, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, stated that one objective of the meeting on Friday was for leaders from various states to debate what strategies have worked to protect access to abortion and to establish a common blueprint in the coming months.
According to what Hicks had to say, We truly want to learn from one other.
During the portions of Friday's conference that were observed by a reporter from The Associated Press, participants did not provide any specifics of their plans to protect and increase access to abortion services.
Those who support abortion rights are also organizing on a national level. National Right to Life is an anti-abortion group that advocates for legislation at the state level to outlaw the procedure unless it is necessary to save the life of the pregnant mother. Legal battles are already being fought over the availability of abortion drugs, and new legal frontiers may include punishing doctors who flout regulations. To further a pro-life agenda, others are campaigning for more conservatives to be elected this November.
The presence of abortion bans and limitations in the majority of states gives organizations that defend women's rights to get abortions a sense of heightened urgency to take action. Even though Roe v. Wade was overturned only three months ago, the Guttmacher Institute, which studies the effects of abortion restrictions, reports that abortion is still legally difficult to obtain in over half of the states in the United States.
This number includes the two states that ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, as well as the nine states that limit access to abortion in other ways. Eleven states have outright banned abortion.
The speed with which new abortion laws were passed in California, which was the result of almost a year of careful planning, gave leaders of the abortion rights movement a sense of renewed confidence.
They drafted a report with over 45 suggestions, which formed the basis for 15 laws that were ultimately implemented by the legislature this session. The legislation reduce the cost of abortions for women with private insurance, fund education for those interested in delivering abortions, allow for the practice of abortion by certain nurse practitioners without the direct supervision of a physician, and protect abortion providers and volunteers from prosecution in other states.
It is anticipated that Newsom will sign most of them into law by the time this month comes to a close. Also, legislators approved an additional $200 million in expenditures to help those who cannot otherwise afford an abortion and to reimburse the out-of-state women who must fly to California for medical care.
Jonathan Keller, president of the California Family Council, issued a statement saying that other states shouldn't follow California's lead on strengthening protections for abortions. Keller's comments were made in response to a question about the remark.
Keller stated in her piece that these proposals are neither economically prudent nor pro-choice because they only promise to pay for abortion and not maternity care or adoption. The question is why any other country would wish to put abortion ahead of parenthood and adoption. It is disrespectful to exclusively offer monetary incentives to women on the provision that they stop their pregnancies, as this practice discourages women from making informed decisions.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Headline USA.
