The Supreme Court on Friday overruled Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after almost 50 years. Southern California lawmakers were swift to respond. Here’s what they had to say:
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Commerce
“There was a time before Roe when women sought out clandestine clinics with unlicensed providers to end an unwanted pregnancy, often resulting in serious complications or death. The decision that the Supreme Court advanced today not only infringes on a women’s right to choose but has also created a public health crisis for millions of women across our nation. Today’s SCOTUS decision will not affect abortion access in California. In 1969, our highest court recognized abortion rights under our state’s constitution, four years before Roe was decided. Our state law protects the right to personal reproductive decisions.”
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino
“The decision overturning Roe v. Wade rolls back more than fifty years of settled law and ensures that girls growing up in America will have less freedom than their mothers and grandmothers. Make no mistake, right-wing Republicans are going to use today’s decision to implement a nationwide abortion ban and even go after access to birth control in many places. We cannot let that happen. The lives of millions of women are at risk. The Senate must pass legislation codifying the right to seek an abortion into law, even if it means getting rid of the filibuster.”
Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert
“Today’s decision from the right-wing Supreme Court to strike down Roe v. Wade throws out nearly 50 years of precedent and rips away women’s right to make personal health care decisions. I am outraged and undeterred to fight at every turn to protect women’s access to reproductive health, including the right to an abortion. Everyone must be able to have a say in decisions that impact their bodies, lives, health, and futures.”
Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside
“The Supreme Court has taken the extraordinary action of stripping American women of the right to control their bodies by overturning Roe v. Wade. This decision gives states the power to rob women of their bodily autonomy, no matter the personal cost to those women or their families. This is offensive and radical. Yesterday, the Court overruled longstanding gun safety laws in a time when massacres of children and innocent people abound. Today, they have given states the power to trample upon the rights of women to make their own decisions about their own bodies. This is hypocritical and completely out of touch with reality.”
State Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, D-San Diego
“I share the searing fury felt by the majority of Americans who are angry and scared for what this Supreme Court decision means—for the lives of their daughters, granddaughters, and loved ones. For the lives of everyone who will be left without options as a result of this regressive decision. With this ruling, the Supreme Court has turned its back on safety and equality. But in California, those values remain firmly rooted. Here, pregnant individuals and their families will always be entitled to dignity, understanding, and reproductive choice.”
“During my time running a women’s health clinic, I saw firsthand what lack of access meant. I listened to and learned from a distraught mother whose daughter died after an illegal abortion, and helped women understand all of their options when they thought they had none. We will not be shoved back into the dark days of desperate decisions. Abortion is health care and the decision to have one lies solely with the patient. California will not leave people vulnerable to the tyranny of a loud minority.”
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
Garcetti joined 10 mayors from across the country in issuing a joint statement on abortion rights. Robert Garcia of Long Beach, Todd Gloria of San Diego, Vicente Sarmiento of Santa Ana, Paige Cognetti of Scranton, Penn., Tishaura Jones of St. Louis, Sam Liccardo of San Jose, Lori E. Lightfoot of Chicago, Libby Schaaf of Oakland, Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento and Satya Rhodes-Conway of Madison, Wis. signed the statement declaring their cities will continue to serve as places where women and all people can make their own reproductive decisions:
“We commit to using every tool at our disposal as mayors to stand up for women in the face of attempts to deprive them of fundamental rights — and call on our leaders in Congress and our statehouses to reverse the impacts of this decision and protect a woman’s right to choose. Further, the draft opinion overturning Roe opens the door to the repeal of many privacy-based rights that form the basis of our society and underpin the very concept of American liberty. These freedoms, including the freedom to marry the person you love free of discrimination, are under threat with this decision. We cannot allow this egregious attack on the progress our country has made.”
Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita
“As are with many issues, each state in the Union has its own laws. Today, the Supreme Court of the United States decided in overturning the past rulings of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey that the legality of abortions should be handed down to the states. Now, the states will decide what is best for their citizens. This is an issue of federalism as is laid out in the tenth amendment of the Constitution that the powers not delegated to the federal government are thereby delegated to the state government, and on down. The only thing that the Supreme Court determined today is that the constitutional path to legislate on this issue is now at the state level.”
“As Californians, even after this ruling, you will continue to live under the same laws and access to abortion. The events today will not change access to abortions as constituents in California. Your access is still granted legally up to the point of fetal viability.”
“If you are concerned over your abortion rights, call your state assemblyman or senator as the law now falls under the guidance of Sacramento.”
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-San Marcos
“Today is a great day for the cause and the principle of life. A clear majority of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States appropriately upheld its core purpose in our structure of self-governance: To discharge their duties faithfully and impartially under the Constitution. This is always the right way and the best way for the High Court to function.”
“Judges hold a most precious power. They must be independent. They must interpret our laws. They must not make laws or rewrite laws. Judges must interpret our statutes as written. They must interpret the Constitution as written. I will always stand for life. And I will always support and defend our Constitution.”
Long Beach Mayor and 42nd Congressional District candidate Robert Garcia, via Twitter.
“This is a dark and horrific moment for our country. We cannot lose hope and we must fight back with everything we have.”
This is a dark and horrific moment for our country. We cannot lose hope and we must fight back with everything we have.
— Robert Garcia (@RobertGarcia) June 24, 2022
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State Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, via Twitter.
“Well…it happened. Roe v. Wade is officially overturned, 50 years later in 2022…in the United States of America.”
Gonzalez, a former Long Beach councilwoman, also vowed that California, which already has strong abortion protections, will “fight back.”
“SCOTUS didn’t just ban abortion today, they banned healthcare access for millions of women & pregnant people in America,” she wrote on Twitter. “Do you think red states will actually invest in family planning or poverty now? They won’t. In CA, we will fight back.”
SCOTUS didn’t just ban abortion today, they banned healthcare access for millions of women & pregnant people in America.
Do you think red states will actually invest in family planning or poverty now? They won’t.
In CA, we will fight back. #SCA10
— Lena Gonzalez
(@SenGonzalez_33) June 24, 2022
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Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn
“This is devastating. I never imagined we would be a country where my granddaughters would have fewer rights than I did depending on where they live.”
“This ruling will not end abortion – even for women living in red states. We must ensure that California and pro-choice states across the country continue to be a haven for reproductive rights.”
Senate Majority Leader Emeritus Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys
“The Supreme Court is criminalizing women. The majority’s theological bent wants to keep women barefoot and pregnant and is a throwback to when women were property and knew their place. That past is our future if Americans don’t wake up and vote.”
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Manhattan Beach
“It is, unfortunately, exactly as we feared. The Republicans’ decades-long war waged in support of forced birth has culminated in this appalling decision. Roe v. Wade was settled law according to the confirmation testimonies of the justices who just voted to overturn it. These justices lied to the Senate and the American people to be confirmed. It should come as no surprise that public confidence in the Supreme Court is at its lowest. Conservative justices, who have often decried legislating from the bench, will now impose their radical views on abortion onto the rest of the country,.”
“Ultimately, this is a personal liberties issue. Some religions support abortion, and some religions oppose abortion. Abortion is a complicated and personal decision. That is exactly why it is wrong for the government to unilaterally make a decision that should rest with the woman, her doctor, her God and her family. The criminalization of abortion, which is what Republicans want, is an attack on bodily autonomy and an attack on an individual’s right not to be pregnant.”
Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, via Twitter
The longtime congressman, among the more well-known and accomplished Democrats in Washington, issued a lengthy statement on Twitter in which he called the Supreme Court’s decision “devastating,” described reproductive rights as “central to individual equality” and predicted the ruling will not endure.
“It is simply not our place, any of us, to decide whether a woman should get an abortion,” he wrote. “Of one thing I am certain. This will not prevail in the long run. History has taught us many things, including that people will not long suffer when rights they’ve enjoyed are taken away.”
Today’s Supreme Court ruling overruling federal abortion rights is personally devastating to me, but even more so, devastating to every American woman who has, with the stroke of a pen, had their rights curtailed and their status as free and equal citizens abridged. 1/3
— Rep. Alan Lowenthal (@RepLowenthal) June 24, 2022
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State Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine
“The Supreme Court’s decision sets the stage to take away so many other rights that we take for grated today, which are based on the same right to privacy that was the basis of Roe v. Wade.”
“The logic of this decision could also cancel LGBTQ rights, gay marriage, access to contraception, and even interracial marriage,” Min said. “The court’s reckless extremism poses a clear and present danger to an entire generation of women and girls, who will now grow up in an America with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers before them.”
House Republican Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, via Twitter
“The people have won a victory. The right to life has been vindicated. The voiceless will finally have a voice.”
The people have won a victory.
The right to life has been vindicated.
The voiceless will finally have a voice.Join @HouseGOP’s new conference starting at 12:05pm ET:https://t.co/5zXyrK785h
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) June 24, 2022
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Rep. Grace F. Napolitano, D-El Monte
“This abhorrent decision has stripped away from my granddaughters, great-granddaughters and women all across this country, the freedom to make decisions about their own lives and futures. Five right-wing justices have greenlit forced pregnancy, effectively taking away the freedom for pregnant people to make this intensely personal decision for themselves and given it away to politicians. The government should not interfere and has no right to interfere; it’s between an individual, their doctor, and their God.”
“It’s scary and infuriating that this decision has been made mostly by men at the highest court; men who have no concept of what this means for women. This ruling will affect tens of millions, disproportionately harming women of color and low-income families who already face significant barriers to healthcare.”
Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Norwalk
“Like millions of Americans, I am outraged by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
“Health care decisions belong in the doctor’s office, not the courtroom. With this decision, the Supreme Court has chosen to ignore 50 years of established precedent, robbing women of the right to make our own health care choices. The reality is that an overwhelming majority of Americans support expanding—not restricting—access to reproductive health care. What’s more, we know who will be most impacted by this decision: low-income communities and communities of color. That is why we must keep fighting until every woman has the freedom to decide for herself what is best for her health, her family, and her future.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank
“The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade is a dangerous and divisive rollback of a half a century’s progress and legal protections.”
“This decision is also a betrayal of the commitments made by recent justices during their confirmation hearings, who indicated under oath they would uphold decades of legal precedent. It is a repudiation of some of our nation’s most cherished values, from the right to privacy to the right of everyone to make their own health care decisions. The fact that this opinion does not come as a surprise does not make it any less traumatic for the millions of women now stripped of their access to safe and legal abortion; it does not make it any less frightening for the millions of people now worried about whether their fundamental freedoms will be the next to fall.”
“Make no mistake, this court is not conservative — it is partisan, with a partisan and socially backward agenda.”‘
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis
“It is impossible to put into words the emotions I am feeling right now. I am saddened. But I am also outraged.”
“Fifty years in the making—Republicans have succeeded in overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, eviscerating one’s right to an abortion. While abortion will remain legal in California, they are now illegal in 26 states and the ramifications extend far beyond these states’ borders. This decision is an assault on people’s freedom, one’s bodily autonomy. And although this decision comes as no surprise, it is devastating. Pregnant people will die, families will suffer, and this is just the start.”
Source: Orange County Register
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