California, West Coast states promise access to abortion, contraceptives

Newsom on Roe v Wade: 'Never would this happen if men were the ones having babies'

California officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have vowed to keep the state a safe haven for women seeking abortions. "And never would this happen if men were the ones having babies," Newsom said on the Roe v. Wade decision.

Within hours of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, the governors of California, Oregon and Washington promised to defend access to reproductive health care, including abortion and contraceptives.

The heads of the West Coast states also said they will protect patients and doctors against efforts by other states to export their abortion bans.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon and Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said their actions come in direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s "unprecedented decision to strip away a constitutional right that has been in place for half a century, leaving abortion regulation to the states."

SCOTUS overturns Roe V Wade

The Supreme Court on Friday ended constitutional protections for abortion that had stood in America for nearly a half-century. The decision by the court’s conservative majority overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling and is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

"The Supreme Court has made it clear – they want to strip women of their liberty and let Republican states replace it with mandated birth because the right to choose an abortion is not ‘deeply rooted in history,'" Newsom said in a statement. "They want to turn back the clock to a time when women had no right to make decisions about their own bodies, when women had to seek care in the shadows and at great danger, when women were not treated as equal citizens under the law. This is another devastating step toward erasing the rights and liberties Americans have fought for on battlefields, in courthouses and in capitols. This is not the America we know – and it’s not the California way."

Over the past several years, each state has taken action to expand access to reproductive health care in preparation for just such a decision:

Newsom has proposed a $125 million Reproductive Health Package to expand access for women and help prepare for the influx of women seeking reproductive health care from other states. The California Legislature has introduced a constitutional amendment to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution. Governor Newsom recently signed legislation eliminating copays for abortion care services and has signed into law a legislative package to further strengthen access and protect patients and providers. Additional proposals are being considered with the Legislature.
Oregon led the nation by passing the most comprehensive reproductive health legislation at the time. Brown signed Oregon’s Reproductive Health Equity Act into law in 2017 — a first of its kind bill that expanded access to reproductive health services for all Oregonians and codified the right to an abortion into state law. Adding to that work, Oregon invested $15 million for community-based organizations to expand access to abortion across the state and provide immediate support to patients, health care providers, and community advocates, with a focus on rural communities, communities of color, and low-income communities to overcome barriers to access.
In 2018 Inslee signed the Reproductive Parity Act that requires all health plans that include maternity care services to also cover abortion and contraception. In 2021, he signed the Protecting Pregnancy Act that allows doctors who practice in Catholic-run hospitals to bypass ethical-religious directives and provide medically necessary abortion when a woman’s life is in danger. Earlier this year, Inslee signed the Affirm Washington Abortion Access Act that better ensures the ability of Washington abortion care providers to serve any person who comes in Washington state seeking an abortion. Washington law also protects patients and clinic personnel from harassment outside of clinics. Further, when federal changes were made to the Title X program to not allow family planning clinics to reference abortion as an option, Washington state stepped up to fund the Title X clinics instead of having to comply. While the federal funding has been restored, the state will continue to provide needed funding to support access to abortion.