No “Reproductive Freedom” in California

May 6, 2024

The City of Beverly Hills, run by Democrats, conclusively blocked a proposed abortion clinic by DuPont Clinic that would have performed late-term abortions. City politicians used all kinds of political trickery and colluded with the building owner where the clinic was being set up, which led to the building owner canceling DuPont’s lease. Simply put, the City of Beverly Hills went along with the reactionary anti-abortion protesters to protect their positions. Two other California cities, Visalia and Fontana, also recently blocked abortion providers.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal protection of abortion rights in 2022, Democratic Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, and other Democratic party bigwigs vowed to turn California into a “haven” for abortion rights. To this end, they enacted a law seemingly protecting unrestricted abortion rights. But this law provides reproductive freedoms only on paper.

Recently, Democrat Newsom is again in the ads, this time touting his plans for a new California law to allow abortion providers from other states, like Arizona, to serve in California and to provide pregnant women from these states financial aid to travel to and have an abortion in California. But these are, again, just political talk and maneuvering.

California has 165 abortion facilities, most of which are in big cities. And more than half of the California clinics provide only the abortion pill and don’t conduct procedures beyond 10 weeks of pregnancy. So, close to 80% of Californians have no nearby abortion clinic, a particular problem for working-class women who can less well afford to travel or pay rent in California’s big cities. That is, California puts geographical barriers against working-class women.

Reproductive freedom in California exists mostly on paper and in politicians’ loudmouths.