Overview:
This article is the final in a five-part series, by News is Out member publications, looking at Roe v. Wade and its impacts on the LGBTQ+ community.
This article is the final in a five-part series, by News is Out member publications, looking at Roe v. Wade and its impacts on the LGBTQ+ community.
By Cynthia Laird, Bay Area Reporter
While many red states are preparing so-called trigger laws that would go into effect if Roe v. Wade is overturned, blue states are pivoting in the opposite direction.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is expected to easily win re-election in November after successfully fending off a recall in 2021, recently proposed more funds for reproductive health facilities.
“California will not stand idly by as extremists roll back our basic constitutional rights; we’re going to fight like hell, making sure that all women – not just those in California – know that this state continues to recognize and protect their fundamental rights,” he said in a news release announcing $125 million to further bolster the state’s health care infrastructure.
The proposals added $57 million to the $68 million Newsom announced in January, which was shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Mississippi case that is now the hot topic of conversation with the recently leaked draft opinion.
Assemblymember Kevin Mullin, a Democrat seeking a Bay Area congressional seat in the June primary, was forceful in his commitment to reproductive freedom. In an editorial board meeting, Mullin, a straight ally to the LGBTQ+ community, told the Bay Area Reporter that the leaked Roe draft opinion “is an abomination.”
“It’s undermining the will of the people,” he said, adding he supports a package of bills in the Legislature that would expand access to reproductive health.
Shawn Kumagai, a gay man running for a Bay Area state Assembly seat, told the B.A.R. that he unequivocally “supports a woman’s right to abortion access.”
Kumagai, a member of the Dublin, California, City Council, said he supports an effort by Newsom, lesbian state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon to amend the state constitution to protect abortion access.
Atkins attended one of the many rallies for abortion rights May 14.
“It was INCREDIBLE to stand with thousands of people in the fight to protect our right to make decisions for our own bodies!” she wrote on Twitter.
In New York, Attorney General Letitia James joined lawmakers and announced legislation that would establish a state program providing financial resources to abortion providers and nonprofit organizations that help increase access to care, funding for uncompensated and uninsured abortion care, and provide resources to support the needs of individuals accessing abortion care, a release stated.
James pointed out that as some states are already restricting abortion access, the number of people traveling to New York has grown.
But the map is stark. Axios had a report showing the West Coast as solid blue, along with New York, New Jersey, and New England on the East Coast, with Colorado and Illinois being the only spots in the middle of the country.