On Wednesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two laws that focus on protecting the privacy of abortions providers and their patients.
Governor Newsom approved and signed two laws intending to protect the privacy of abortion providers and patients. Newsom declared California to be a “reproductive freedom state” and brought up points that disagree with Texas and the efforts to limit abortion procedures.
The first law made it illegal to film people, with intentions of humiliation or intimidation, within 100 feet of an abortion clinic. The second law makes it so individuals on their parent’s insurance policies can keep their complex medical information confidential.
America’s two largest populated states, Texas and California, are on opposite ends of the spectrum when abortion is a topic. With Texas passing a law that makes abortions illegal after a heartbeat is detected (before 6 weeks), the conflict between the two states has escalated.
Personally, I am on the same end of the spectrum as California. I believe that what the lawmakers in Texas are doing is wrong because most of the time a woman does not know she is pregnant until after the sixth week. When safe abortions are not an option after six weeks, women could choose to take the abortion into their own hands, literally. Unsafe abortions cause complications to the woman’s psychological and physical health, such as bleeding out, severe trauma, or in the worst cases death to the fetus and the woman. There is an even smaller number of women who do not know they are pregnant until they miss their next menstrual period, so four weeks after their last one. Say a woman knows she is pregnant at five weeks. She has one week to decide if she is financially, physically, and mentally able to carry the fetus to term, and that’s only if she finds out before the sixth week. This is not politics; it is a war on women.