In Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new political commercial, two anxious younger girls in an SUV drive towards the Alabama state line.
The passenger says she thinks they’re going to make it, earlier than a siren blares and the flashing lights of a police automotive seem within the rearview mirror.
“Miss,” a police officer who approaches the window says to the panicked driver, “I’m gonna want you to step out of the automobile and take a being pregnant check.”
The fictional video is the most recent in a collection of visceral commercials the California governor has aired in different states to name out a conservative marketing campaign to stroll again reproductive rights for the reason that U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturned the nationwide proper to abortion two years in the past.
Newsom’s “Marketing campaign for Democracy” will air the advert on broadcast networks and digital channels in Montgomery, Ala., for 2 weeks starting on Monday, in keeping with Lindsey Cobia, a senior advisor to Newsom. The governor is searching for to attract consideration to makes an attempt by Republican leaders to make it tougher for residents of states with abortion bans to journey to different states for reproductive care.
Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for Newsom, mentioned the governor is also working with state lawmakers on a invoice that might briefly enable Arizona suppliers to present abortion care to Arizona sufferers in California.
Newsom’s workplace is coordinating the laws with Arizona’s Gov. Katie Hobbs and Atty. Gen. Kris Mayes, Democrats who denounced a current Arizona Supreme Courtroom ruling that upheld an 1864 abortion ban. The ban, which has but to take impact, permits solely abortions which are medically vital to save lots of the lifetime of a pregnant affected person.
“Arizona Atty. Gen. Kris Mayes recognized a have to expedite the power for Arizona abortion suppliers to proceed to supply care to Arizonans as a strategy to assist sufferers of their state searching for abortion care in California,” Richards mentioned in an announcement. “We’re responding to this name and can have extra particulars to share within the coming days.”
California voters authorized an modification to the state structure in 2022 that protects entry to abortion up till the purpose that a health care provider believes the fetus can survive by itself. Docs are allowed to carry out abortions at any stage if a being pregnant poses a threat to the well being of the pregnant particular person.
Since Roe vs. Wade was overturned, Newsom and state lawmakers have elevated funding for individuals from out of state who search abortions, and have forged the state as a secure haven for abortion companies. The proposed laws to make it simpler for Arizona medical doctors to see sufferers in California is in response to an anticipated inflow of sufferers from that state in gentle of the abortion ban.
Democrats are seizing on the difficulty of abortion, which may provide a political benefit in an important election yr.
President Biden is campaigning for reelection partially on restoring the protections in Roe vs. Wade, and is blaming his presumptive GOP rival, former President Trump, for a wave of antiabortion insurance policies.
Trump lately mentioned that abortion rights ought to be as much as the states and that he wouldn’t signal a nationwide ban, whereas on the identical time taking credit score for nominating conservative justices who helped overturn abortion rights in 2022.
“He’s a liar. He’s not telling you the reality,” Newsom mentioned in an interview with Jen Psaki on MSNBC. “He’s not level-setting. He’ll say no matter he must say on any day of the week.”
Democrats nationally used Alabama as a lightning rod for the hazards of a Trump presidency earlier this spring after the Alabama Supreme Courtroom dominated in a lawsuit that embryos could also be thought-about youngsters — a transfer that briefly halted in vitro fertilization companies within the state. Republican leaders shortly reversed course and handed a invoice to guard IVF, a course of that normally entails the destruction of some embryos.
Alabama bans abortion in any respect phases of being pregnant, with no exception for pregnancies arising from rape. State Atty. Gen. Steve Marshall mentioned final yr that he may criminally prosecute individuals in Alabama who assist girls receive abortions elsewhere — a declare the U.S. Justice Division has refuted.