California, the “sanctuary state” in the United States for exercising the right to abortion

Up to 36 million women of reproductive age look uncomfortably at the map of the United States to know where they will have guaranteed the right to abortion after the Supreme Court on Friday revoked the sentence that had constitutionally protected him since 1973.

In the USA, 16 states, plus the District of Columbiapreviously it had its own legislative framework to safeguard the right to abortion without federal interference, both during much of the pregnancy and under the “good medical faith” criterion.

They have been “sanctuaries” for abortion like Vermont and Massachusetts, where even having Republican governors this right will be protected, or Michigan, which has already announced that it would take a 1931 law in court (before ‘Roe v. Wade ‘previous) to prevent termination of pregnancy from being prohibited.

While it is not anticipated in these states that the right to abortion will be affected after the legal setback of the Supreme Court, the facilities for accessing clinics and paying court fees are not always as convenient as in California. reproductive standard.

In the most populous state of the country, with nearly 40 million inhabitants, they were practiced in 2020 more than 154,000 legal abortions out of the national total of 930,060, according to the Guttmacher Institute, dedicated to research on reproductive problems in the United States.

“Good medical faith”

People here believe they should be granted this right as part of their health care system, “Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst at the aforementioned institution, told Efe.

In California it is legal to abort following the criterion of “good medical faith” which, while not establishing a precise term, only contemplates the prohibition of termination of pregnancy if the 23rd week has been reached or if the fetus weighs about 500 grams, since then it is believed that it can survive outside the uterus.

The termination of pregnancy is covered by the various health insurance plans, It can be paid in co-payment where the pregnant woman pays between one thousand and two thousand five hundred dollars and can become free for low-income women.

In this context, experts predict it the journeys of women intending to have an abortion will increase exponentially after the alleged limitation of the right to abortion in up to 26 states following the decision of the High Court.

The University of California (UCLA) Center for Reproductive Health, Law and Policy estimates this between 8,000 and 16,000 women they will travel to this state every year in order to have an abortion from now on.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (Democratic Party) himself has announced that he will award an additional item of $ 125 million offer health coverage, transportation and accommodation to women from other states who opt for a California abortion clinic.

California has experienced an economic surplus in recent years that could allow it to pay for these new abortions, UCLA law historian Mary Ziegler said in an interview with Efe.

This flow of women to California supposes a “disturbing element”according to specialists like Elizabeth Nash herself, but reproductive centers in this state have been working over the past month to adapt so that their clinics are not saturated or interventions are delayed.

Planned Parenthood, the organization with the largest number of reproductive health clinics in the United States, continues this work.

Its community affairs manager, Claudia Powell, assured Efe that they have nearly remodeled all 100 centers they have located in California.

The role of clinics

In the process before making the decision to abort, family planning clinics such as Claris Health play a pivotal role, where no abortions are practiced but other health and psychological services are provided to both pregnant women and those who decide to terminate their abortion. pregnancy.

“We try make a decision being sure of yourself because sometimes the step (continuing the pregnancy or having an abortion) is rushed or under pressure, ”Claris Health executive director Talitha Phillips, who openly admitted having had an abortion when she was young, told Efe.

Good evidence of the neutrality of these clinics is the case of Mónica Méndez (30), a patient who went to Claris Health in 2018 to receive treatment before abortion, finally chose to have the baby and ended up working in this same health center.

California is one of the states where protection against abortion has more guaranteesbut in this “oasis of reproductive freedom” there is still the pending question of extending health coverage to all Latin American women and undocumented migrants.

In fact, the Democratic Party has proposed an amendment to the California Constitution so that Under no circumstances can the state prohibit abortion or deny the prescription of contraceptives to any woman on Californian soil.

And it’s that Latinas and undocumented migrants have to overcome obstacles to access reproductive health services because they don’t have health insurance or because of the language barrier, Laura Jiménez, executive director of the organization California Latinas for Reproductive, explained to Efe. Justice.

He assured, for example, that many women living in rural areas suffer family discrimination if they decide to have an abortion and also have difficulty doing it, because only 40% of California counties they have abortion facilities and most are concentrated in urban areas of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento or Oakland.

Abortion groups and other civilian organizations such as Access Reproductive Justice are now working to “offer financial and legal support in a bilingual format” to these women so that they also feel that California is that sanctuary for reproductive rights in Which other states look at each other. .

EFE agency

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