State prepares for Roe reversal fallout
With the 5-4 reversal of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, 26 states have laws that have either gone into effect or soon will go into effect banning or severely limiting access to abortion. California, by contrast, is working to codify abortion rights.
Brad Sears, the associate dean of public interest law at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law who works with the school’s Center on Reproductive Health, Law and Policy, said an influx of women visiting from out-of-state for reproductive care is expected in Los Angeles.
“As a result of last week’s opinion by the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade, we estimate that over 10,000 more people will come to California each year for abortion care, over 6,000 of whom will come to Los Angeles County,” Sears said. “Put differently, approximately 900 additional people will come to California each month for an abortion, 500 of whom will come to Los Angeles County. While people come to L.A. from all over the country, more will come from nearby states, such as Arizona, Texas and Utah. In addition, those who come are more likely to be lower income, be women of color and be further along in their pregnancies and/or have greater complications related to reproductive health care.”
“Women who live in states across the nation that eliminate women’s reproductive rights will turn to California, and Los Angeles, for help,” Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said. “We must step up, expanding clinic capacity and finding ways to support women and girls who flee states where abortion is illegal and worry they can never return without confronting legal consequences.”
Los Angeles Councilwoman Nithya Raman, 4th District, introduced a motion on June 28 that called for a ban on city resources being used to cooperate with out-of-state investigations in detaining any person procuring, performing or aiding in abortion care. The motion also seeks to investigate the feasibility of allocating funds to subsidize costs for people coming to Los Angeles for abortion care.
“[The] Supreme Court decision dealt a devastating blow to our civil liberties,” Raman said. “As we move forward in this new reality, we must ensure that Los Angeles acts as a sanctuary city for those seeking or assisting abortion care from outside our borders.”
“Women should not live in fear of making the trip to Los Angeles for essential, legal, safe health care, just to be detained or receive criminal charges in their home state,” said Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, 6th District. “Our city will not stand to serve as an extension of these conservative states. We will not do the heartless bidding of lawmakers that don’t believe women deserve bodily autonomy.”
The city of Beverly Hills lit City Hall pink on June 24 in support of women’s reproductive rights.
“[The] decision is absolutely devastating,” Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse said. “These are human rights being taken away in a show of disrespect to women and my heart breaks for those who sacrificed so much to bring us those freedoms.”
West Hollywood Mayor Pro Tempore Sepi Shyne encouraged those needing care to come to West Hollywood.
“Come to our city, we will welcome you with open arms and give you the safe medical care that you need through our partnership with Planned Parenthood,” Shyne said.
She said she and fellow West Hollywood Councilwoman Lindsey Horvath are reaching out to the state legislature to try and change or narrowly amend the law that prevents cities from giving public benefits to people who are not local residents.
West Hollywood Councilman John Erickson, who works at Planned Parenthood, said the non-profit has been preparing for the decision.
“We are ready,” Erickson said. “We’ve been seeing the eradication to the federal right to a legal abortion for quite some time, and that’s why the forward-thinking nature of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles has been getting ready for this moment.”
Shyne spoke at a rally in West Hollywood Park on June 24, organized by the West Hollywood City Council, that offered a strong rebuke of the Supreme Court decision, specifically speaking to how the decision could marginalize people in states with anti-abortion laws.
“We know from history what is next,” Shyne said. “Most people cannot afford to fly to the other states including California that will continue to provide abortion rights. Most of those people are Black and other people of color and all of them low income. We know from history what is next. Fear, anxiety, back-alley abortions, forced birth and death. That is why I am filled with rage.”
Several other speakers, ranging from local officials to activists and women, spoke about their abortion experiences, including local resident Angela de Silva, who shared her personal story.
“Even though in my heart I know I made the right choice, and I don’t have any regrets, this decision is still not one that any person wants to make,” de Silva said. “It is not taken lightly, and the fact that this choice is about to be stripped away from so many people makes me infuriated and also just devastated. We all know this is only ending safe abortion, and I fear for those who won’t have the means to leave their state to get the support they need.”
“Our union represents 32,000 workers who are mostly immigrant women of color,” Unite Here Local 11 worker Laura Banuet said. “We represent workers in Arizona who are in a fight for their lives. This is why our union knows exactly what is at stake and who is at the biggest disadvantage when it comes to accessible reproductive care … working women of color.”
Following an hour of speeches, the large crowd marched east on Santa Monica Boulevard, stopping at the Planned Parenthood offices. An emphasis in many of the speeches highlighted other landmark decisions that could be overturned. In his concurrent opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas cited three cases he thought should be revisited, including Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage legal.
Erickson warned that if the Republican party were to gain control of Congress and the presidency, these decisions could be codified into national law.
“If Republicans have the majority and the votes to pass an abortion ban, which they have already signaled if you’ve been watching [Sen.] Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and what he’s been saying to do, that’s something they could do,” Erickson said.
“The criminalization of abortion, which is what Republicans want, is an attack on bodily autonomy and an attack on an individual’s right not to be pregnant,” U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) said that codifying abortion rights into law now must be a major legislative priority. Last September, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a law that would have granted access to abortion rights to women throughout the entire country, but the bill failed to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster.
“I really think senators are going to need to decide what are their priorities, to maintain some arcane rule of Senate practice, or is it to protect the health care of women in their constituencies? It’s an easy decision as far as I’m concerned, but as long as senators elevate the filibuster over doing the right thing, people’s lives are going to be put at risk,” Schiff said.
“The only option is for Congress to pass a law to restore women’s reproduction rights and ensure control over their own health care,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein said. “Anything short of that devalues the lives of women and signals they can’t be trusted to make decisions about their own bodies.”
Erickson reminded angry citizens that voting in November is paramount.
“Donate to your local abortion provider, make sure that we are telling our stories because that does have the power to change a lot of people’s minds and ensure that you’re not only registered to vote, but that everyone that you know is taking action and voting and organizing because the fight starts now,” Erickson said.