USA: California is preparing to become a “shelter” for women who want to have an abortion

Her state California is preparing to welcome a large influx of women who will want to move on abortion, if the US Supreme Court amending, confirming all concerns, the legal framework guaranteeing the right to abortion from 1973 with the historic decision Roe v Wade.

With the support of the governor Gavin Newsom and other elected Democrats, about forty organizations for the protection of individual rights, public health and family planning have drawn up a California be able to respond to the abortion requests of all women who apply to the state, whether they reside there or come from other US states affected by the reversal of the legal framework.

The governor Newsom publicly welcomed the establishment in late September Council on the Future of Abortion expanding access to sexual and reproductive health, including abortion, following the dangerous, harmful and unconstitutional restrictions imposed by the Texas. The conservative and Republican-dominated southern state of USA prohibits abortion after September 1 after the sixth week of pregnancy.

Advocates of the right to abortion are now worried about a bigger threat: the Supreme Court appears ready to give the green light to a law passed in 2018 by his state Mississippi which prohibits abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

This law violates the framework of the historic decision Roe v. Wade of 1973 in which the Supreme Court considered the American Constitution guarantees the right of women to have an abortion as long as the fetus is not viable, ie at 22 to 24 weeks of gestation. Consequently, his law Mississippi has not entered into force as unconstitutional.

If the US Supreme Court, which will have to announce its decision by the end of June, ratify its law Mississippi, many conservative states that want to curb abortions will rush to seize the margin left by the decision of the country’s highest judicial institution.

In an indication of the deep divisions for abortion, in his state Mississippi there is only one center that performs voluntary abortion, while the California, the most populous American state, has 150 abortion centers.

In accordance with Guttmacher Institute, if the Supreme Court rule in favor of his law Mississippi, 26 US states are ready “with certainty or probability” to ban abortion in their territory.

In practice, if the decision Roe v. Wade significantly undermined or weakened, 21 states already have laws or amendments in place that will allow them to act quickly, according to the Institute for Reproductive Health Research.

And the consequence will be that tens of thousands of women, not being able to terminate a pregnancy in the state where they live, will seek a solution in the neighboring states that will rush to take advantage of the margins provided by the Supreme Court opening a rift in the decision Roe v. Wade.

Reproductive freedom for all

In California, organizations are already feeling the effects of the ban in force Texas from the beginning of September. The family planning network already monitors the arrival of two to three patients a day from Texas.

The Californian NGO Access Reproductive Justice, which provides administrative and financial assistance to women who want to terminate a pregnancy, also records an increase in applications from Texas. “We know the barriers tend to be bigger for people who are not from California because they have to pay for the plane or the bus,” she said. Jessica Picney, director of the non-governmental organization.

It cites examples of women who did not realize they were pregnant before the sixth or seventh week, losing access to abortion in their state and their insurance to cover expenses, which can range from $ 200 to $ 6,000 depending on the case. .

“Generally, they are forced to carry out an unwanted pregnancy or make radical decisions by leaving their state,” she explains. Jessica Picney.

Stronghold of the Democrats and the spearhead of the opposition in its super-conservative policy Donald Trump, the California was officially declared in May 2019 a state that guarantees reproductive freedom for all, pledging to defend the right to abortion.

As early as 2014, it had enacted legislation that obliges employers and private insurance companies to include abortion in their health coverage.

When the Donald Trump tried to put pressure on California to undo this arrangement, the governor Newsom denounced a “vulgar political action”, recalling that “women’s health is equivalent to public health”.

You may also like