The doctors bringing abortion care from SF General to Wichita

by GRIFFIN JONES
JULY 27, 2023

A 19-year-old girl walks up to the clinic’s front desk, a couple of her friends trailing behind. Everyone is yawning after the eight-hour overnight drive from eastern Arkansas to Wichita, Kansas. After a wait, the woman is ushered into a private room and greeted by Dr. Jennifer Kerns, an abortion provider, who relays the encounter.

Kerns, too, arrived that morning after an eight-hour journey of her own, via several flights from San Francisco to Kansas.

Continued: https://missionlocal.org/2023/07/the-doctors-bringing-abortion-care-from-san-francisco-general-to-wichita/


Why ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ will be California’s next abortion battleground

BY KRISTEN HWANG
JUNE 16, 2023

In California, less than two-thirds of counties have an abortion clinic. But nearly 80% have at least one “crisis pregnancy center,” according to a database compiled by CalMatters.

Abortion rights advocates and lawmakers have long accused these centers — also known as anti-abortion centers — of coercing vulnerable people into remaining pregnant by misleading them about abortion procedures and contraceptive methods. In rural areas with acute primary care shortages, “crisis pregnancy centers” outnumber abortion clinics 11 to 2, a CalMatters analysis shows.

Continued: https://calmatters.org/health/2023/06/crisis-pregnancy-centers-california/


Even in blue California, attempts to regulate controversial antiabortion centers continue to fail

BY MACKENZIE MAYS
MAY 28, 2023

ROSEVILLE, Calif. —  At Sierra Pregnancy and Health, Executive Director Cary Wilcox beams with pride holding a plastic model of what will soon be a new mobile clinic thanks to a flood of donations after its “biggest year ever.”

Outside the nondescript nonprofit just 20 miles from the California capital, a sign advertises “abortion pill reversal” — a practice involving the hormone progesterone that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists deems “unethical” and “not supported by science.”

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-28/anti-abortion-pregnancy-centers-are-expanding-as-californias-attempts-at-regulation-fail


Miles Apart: Texas and California Lawmakers Stake Opposite Corners of Abortion Policy

It’s about 1,500 miles from Austin to Sacramento, but Texas and California lawmakers are a million miles apart on how to treat private data related to reproductive health.

5/5/2023
by JENNIFER PINSOF and HAYLEY TSUKAYAMA

State lawmakers in Texas and California are staking out opposite corners of digital public policy in the post-Roe era: in Texas by trying to ban online speech about abortion, and in California by trying to protect those seeking abortions from dragnet-style digital surveillance.

How these states legislate reproductive data privacy and information access could affect millions of vulnerable people nationwide, because the internet doesn’t stop at state borders.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/05/05/texas-california-abortion-privacy/


California will cut ties with Walgreens over the company’s plan to drop abortion pills

March 7, 2023
EMILY OLSON

Last week, Walgreens said it will not distribute abortion pills in states where Republican officials have threatened legal action. Now a blue state says it will cut ties with the pharmacy giant because of the move.

"California won't be doing business with @walgreens – or any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women's lives at risk," Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a tweet yesterday with a link to news coverage of Walgreen's decision.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/07/1161590750/california-walgreens-mifepristone-abortion-pill


USA – Their Hospital Didn’t Offer Abortions Pills in the ER. These Doctors Changed That.

Offering patients medication abortion when they need care has been a game changer at two California hospitals.

JAN 10, 2023
GARNET HENDERSON

When Dr. Andrea Henkel was training at Stanford Health Care, a patient visited the emergency room twice in one week for vomiting associated with early pregnancy. The patient said she didn’t plan on continuing the pregnancy and had an appointment for an abortion the next week.

“She was clearly miserable from a pregnancy that she didn’t want,” Henkel, a complex family planning specialist, said. “I wondered why we couldn’t just initiate her abortion via pills while she was in the emergency department—we already knew her gestational age and medical history, and she was certain on her decision.”

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2023/01/10/their-hospital-didnt-offer-abortions-pills-in-the-er-these-doctors-changed-that/


Demand has quadrupled at some California abortion clinics since Roe fell

Women are making ‘traumatizing’ trips across state lines for care

By MARISA KENDALL
January 1, 2023

One woman had never flown on a plane before and was petrified to make the journey from Texas to California. Another drove all night from El Paso to make her appointment because she couldn’t miss work. A third was so worried about getting in trouble that she asked the staff at Planned Parenthood if they could wipe her phone and destroy all evidence of her abortion.

Six months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, prompting about half of the states in the country to move to ban or limit abortion access, these are the kinds of stories California clinics say they are encountering on a regular basis as they continue to serve an influx of patients from Texas, Arizona and beyond.

Continued: https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/01/01/demand-has-tripled-quadrupled-at-california-abortion-clinics-since-roe-fell/


Judge strikes down California gun law modeled on Texas abortion measure

The ruling could put the law on a trajectory to the Supreme Court.

By JEREMY B. WHITE
12/19/2022

A federal judge has blocked a California gun law that emulated a controversial Texas abortion measure — and which was intended to provoke a court fight.

The injunction from Judge Roger Benitez sets California’s law, which enables private citizens to sue manufacturers of illegal guns, on a potential path to the U.S. Supreme Court. That could set up a test of both laws — an outcome that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has sought.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/19/california-gun-law-texas-abortion-00074689


California governor pardons abortion activist from 1940s

Gov. Gavin Newsom has posthumously pardoned an abortion activist from the 1930s and 1940s
By DON THOMPSON Associated Press
November 4, 2022

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday posthumously pardoned an abortion activist from the 1930s and 1940s, acting days before Californians finish voting on whether to enshrine increased protections in the state Constitution in response to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Laura Miner was convicted in 1949 of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion. She was sentenced to four years in prison on the twin felonies, and died in 1976.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/california-governor-pardons-abortion-activist-1940s-92686167


Offering abortion pills on campus could eliminate boundaries to access, students say

California state schools must provide abortion pills on campus by Jan. 1.

By Nadine El-Bawab
October 15, 2022

Colleges and universities offering the abortion pill on campus could help reduce barriers to abortion care access, even in states that currently have protections for this care, students advocating for abortion rights say.

Students in California and New York told ABC News that increasing the points of access to care, such as requiring schools to provide medication abortions, would likely go a long way toward lightening the burden on clinics that are being overwhelmed with patients traveling from other states.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/offering-abortion-pills-campus-eliminate-boundaries-access-students/story?id=91397554