“We just won’t comply”: Inside California’s push to be the ultimate abortion haven state

Gov. Gavin Newsom has implemented strict privacy measures for patients and increased California’s budget for services. But as California strives to be a sanctuary for abortion seekers from around the country, providers are still struggling to serve those in state.

BY ABIGAIL TRACY
AUGUST 5, 2022

As a growing number of states across the country continue to ravage reproductive rights after the fall of Roe v. Wade, advocates and policymakers in California are sending a message. “We’re becoming not just a haven state sort of in theory, although that’s important,” Jodi Hicks, the CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said. “But also we’re becoming a state that won’t comply with other states. We just won’t comply.”

California has long held some of the strongest protections for abortion access in the country. But last October, when the Supreme Court first chose not to halt Texas S.B. 8, which bans abortions at six weeks without exception—months before they unraveled federal abortion protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—the check engine light came on. The impact was immediate as patients from Texas began traveling to California seeking care. And suddenly, Hicks explained, providers were faced with a series of new legal questions regarding their care. Reproductive rights advocates went into overdrive.

Continued: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/08/inside-californias-push-to-be-the-ultimate-abortion-haven-state


How California Plans to Serve the Nation and Safeguard Abortion

From working to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution and become a "sanctuary" for access, California is becoming a blueprint for other states

Jun 10, 2022
Xenia Ellenbogen

It’s inevitable that Roe v. Wade will be overturned, throwing abortion access and rights into further chaos in this country. Thanks to Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked draft opinion, whether the Supreme Court overturns Roe in its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization seems to be a matter of when, not if.

When Roe falls, the number of people of reproductive age whose nearest provider would be California would be up to 1.4 million—or a staggering increase of nearly 3,000 percent, the Guttmacher Institute estimates. Since the leak, California lawmakers have been moving to protect abortion access.

https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2022/06/10/how-california-plans-to-serve-the-nation-and-safeguard-abortion/


California plans for a post-Roe world as abortion access shrinks elsewhere

Rachel Bluth, Kaiser Health News
Nov 18, 2021

SACRAMENTO — With access to abortion at stake across America, California is preparing to become the nation’s abortion provider.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders have asked a group of reproductive health experts to propose policies to bolster the state’s abortion infrastructure and ready it for more patients. Lawmakers plan to begin debating the ideas when they reconvene in January.

Continued: https://www.vvdailypress.com/story/news/2021/11/18/california-plans-post-roe-world-abortion-access-shrinks/8668342002/


California moves to make abortion cheaper, as other states work to restrict it

By RACHEL BLUTH, KAISER HEALTH NEWS
JUNE 7, 2021

SACRAMENTO — Even as most states are trying to make it harder to get an abortion, California could make it free for more people.

State lawmakers are debating a bill to eliminate out-of-pocket expenses such as co-pays and payments toward deductibles for abortions and related services, including counseling. The measure, approved by the Senate and headed to the Assembly, would apply to most private health plans regulated by the state.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-07/california-to-make-abortion-cheaper-unlike-many-states


USA – Planned Parenthood boldly resists anti-abortion attack

Planned Parenthood boldly resists anti-abortion attack

By Sue Davis
posted on August 30, 2019

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of comprehensive reproductive health care for poor women, took a bold stand of resistance Aug. 19 against the Trump-Pence administration’s latest volley in the war on women.

It refused to go along with the Department of Health and Human Services’ new “domestic gag rule,” effective Aug. 19, which now requires that all health care participants in the $286 million Title X program not refer patients to abortion providers. And if facilities do offer abortion care, that must be physically and financially separated from other services.

Continued: https://www.workers.org/2019/08/30/planned-parenthood-boldly-resists-anti-abortion-attack/