Under a new law proposed by state lawmakers in California, a largely tax-subsidized fund could become available to help people from out-of-state access abortions.
California State Senators Nancy Skinner and Anna Caballero introduced Senate Bill 1142, which, if passed into law, will establish a public-private fund for the sole purpose of providing grant money to nonprofits to assist “low-income pregnant women” get “access to abortion services.”
This bill has the explicit goal of attracting out-of-state women who seek abortion services which would subsequently establish California as a state friendly to abortion tourism.
PJ Media reported that the amount of taxpayer money used to support the fund would be determined by the California legislature.
SB 1142 is a self-styled response to laws passed in multiple Republican-controlled states that limit abortions to before the detection of a fetal heartbeat and is a preemptive attempt to codify protections to abortion access in law before the Supreme Court potentially overturns Roe v. Wade.
Sen. Skinner said in a statement, “The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority seems poised to do the unthinkable. If the court overturns 50 years of settled law and takes away a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, California will not stand idly by.”
She continued, “With SB 1142, California sends a clear message to the rest of the nation: We are fully committed to ensuring that California women and those who may seek refuge here have access to all reproductive services, including abortion.”
In the September of 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills into law that prioritized securing the privacy of women who received abortions and the abortionists who provided them with these services, reported ABC News.
In doing so, Gov. Newsom declared California to be a “reproductive freedom state,” which he viewed to be in direct contrast to the state of Texas’s work to limit access to abortion.
The recently passed laws made it a crime to film people within 100 feet of an abortion clinic for the purpose of intimidation and make it easier for young women who are on their parents’ insurance plans to keep sensitive medical information, like whether they received an abortion, private.
On the other hand, Republican-controlled states like Texas and Florida are having great levels of success in advancing laws that restrict abortion access after the detection of a fetal heartbeat.
In early March, the Texas Supreme Court upheld the state’s recently passed six-week abortion ban. And, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is preparing to sign a 15-week abortion ban into law.