Newsom moves to make California a sanctuary state for abortions

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Gavin Newsom encourages Democrats, Biden to embrace harsher messaging against GOP.

California Governor Gavin Newsom urged his party to stop playing nice with Republicans and embrace harsher messaging going into the midterm elections.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is capitalizing on a Democratic majority state legislature to enact sweeping pro-choice laws and shape California into a sanctuary state for any woman seeking an abortion, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision allowing states to abolish the procedure.

Newsom last week signed a series of bills designed to shield California state law enforcement officers, medical providers, and tech companies from complying with subpoenas or cooperating with investigations from out-of-state entities related to any abortions that occur legally in California.

"An alarming number of states continue to outlaw abortion and criminalize women, and it’s more important than ever to fight like hell for those who need these essential services," the Democrat said in a press release. 

Jodi Hicks, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, praised the state’s efforts: "Today’s bold and comprehensive actions provide reassurance to all that California is a Reproductive Freedom state and all are welcome to seek the care they want or need here in California."

Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom of California (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Newsom has not been shy in suggesting that he is undermining Republican-led states that have outlawed abortion, stating in a tweet on June 24, the day the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, that California will be a "safe haven for women across the nation." 

On September 13, Gov. Newsom launched abortion.ca.gov, a government website that "provides information specifically for those coming to California for an abortion. Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the country, assisted in the effort.

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One of the most significant measures he signed last week, AB 1242, blocks out-of-state law enforcement officers from using California laws to execute search warrants on businesses headquartered or incorporated in California. 

According to California Attorney General Bonta, "If another state wants to track the movement of a woman traveling to California seeking reproductive health care, that state would be blocked from accessing cell phone site tower location data of the woman by serving a warrant to the tech company in California.

"This first-in-the-nation law helps shield those seeking or providing reproductive healthcare against wrongful prosecution and ensures that California laws and California courts are not used to facilitate investigation or prosecution of abortion-related actions that are legal in our state," Bonta said in a press release. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a bill into law.  (AP)

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Pro-life advocates say that California’s efforts to dig a legal moat around abortion access could enable abuse or even medical malpractice. Katie Glenn, State Policy Director for SBA Pro-Life America, told Fox News Digital, "The California law could also be read to make it impossible for a woman suing for medical malpractice to get access to her own records.

"It’s not about access to abortion, it’s about keeping anyone doing abortions from any accountability if they are involved in lawbreaking." Glenn stated. "It doesn’t seem to matter in California anymore, and they want everybody else to fly there and get their abortions there, too."

Anti-abortion demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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AB 2223, another measure in the package, further insulates California from any out-of-state legal recourse by deleting the legal requirement that a medical examiner has to investigate the cause of an infant death after 20 weeks gestation "following known or suspected self-induced or criminal abortion."

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"Abortion is legal, safe and accessible here in California — whether or not you live here, know that we have your back," Newsom said. 

Lila Rose, president of the pro-life group Live Action and a California native, says that most Californians support some abortion limitations and oppose taxpayer-funded abortions. She says Newsom is pandering to a small section of his base that supports limitless abortions and is out of touch with most of California.

"Because the media fawns over Gavin Newsom in California, because he has so many friends in the institutions here, they're covering for him, and they're lying to the people of California. It's a terrible disservice to justice in this state."

Erin Hawley, senior counsel for pro-life law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, says that for California to not allow any investigations into infant death means it could be enabling cases of abuse and neglect. "It's very much within normal healthcare practice to ask why an infant died, and if it was from an unnatural cause, then that's something coroners and others should be able to investigate. If not, it sanctions infanticide."