Marchers took to the streets downtown after a rally for abortion rights on Friday.Credit…Morgan Lieberman for The New York Times
LOS ANGELES — Standing in front of a display of wire hangers at a protest downtown on Friday, hours after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, Gloria Allred told the crowd about an illegal abortion that almost killed her.
It was Los Angeles in the 1960s, before Roe guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion. In California at the time, state law made it illegal for people to perform the procedure.
Allred, the famed women’s rights lawyer, was then in her 20s, working as a teacher. She had become pregnant after being raped during a vacation in Mexico and desperately wanted an abortion, she said.
“I managed to get someone who would do it for the money, and who was not a doctor or a nurse, just a stranger,” Allred, 80, said. “He did it, and then he left me in a bathtub hemorrhaging in a pool of my own blood.”
Allred’s story offers a window into the tough choices women could face following the Supreme Court’s ruling, she said. But it also serves as a reminder of how much the abortion landscape has changed in California over the past 50 years.
While dozens of states are planning to ban or severely restrict abortion after Roe’s reversal, California leaders are shoring up resources and passing legislation to make it easier for people to obtain abortions here.
Our State Constitution guarantees a right to an abortion, so the Supreme Court decision won’t change access to the procedure within the state. And as soon as Monday, lawmakers are expected to put a state constitutional amendment on the ballot that would more explicitly protect reproductive rights.
Put simply: California is gearing up to be the nation’s abortion provider.
“A lot of women and girls are going to have to become abortion refugees, leaving their home, looking for another state where they can get a legal and safe abortion,” Allred told me in an interview. “We are a haven state, a sanctuary state, in California.”
Already, about one in six abortions in the U.S. are performed here. And, concerned about the possibility of a Roe v. Wade reversal, legislators for months have been pushing abortion rights proposals, such as banning private insurance plans from charging co-pays or deductibles for the procedure and allowing nurse practitioners to offer abortions.
On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to shield California abortion providers from liability or prosecution related to out-of-state bans on abortions. Newsom also announced an agreement with Oregon and Washington leaders to establish a West Coast abortion firewall that would protect providers and patients from the legal reach of other states.
The governor said the ruling on Friday was “another devastating step toward erasing the rights and liberties Americans have fought for on battlefields, in courthouses and in capitols.”
“This is not the America we know,” Newsom said, “and it’s not the California way.”
The fall of Roe means that approximately 10,600 more people will travel to California each year for abortion care, with the majority coming from Texas or Arizona, according to a U.C.L.A. report. Abortion providers here already had an uptick in out-of-state abortion patients after Texas enacted a strict abortion law last year.
Amanda Roberti, an assistant professor of political science at San Francisco State University, said that California, with its legal protections and programs to defray the costs of travel for patients, will undoubtedly feel the impacts of Roe’s reversal.
So many people from out of state could seek abortions here that the demand may overwhelm clinics and increase waiting times for California patients, she said.
“California and other states are going to have to figure out ways in which to deal with the fallout from other states’ policies,” she told me. “This is something kind of monumental. This overturns 50 years of precedent, and I think folks are going to be desperately seeking the medical attention that they need.”
For more:
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Read the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, annotated by The Times.
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Track the states where abortion is now banned.
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What does the end of Roe mean? Key questions and answers.
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Abortion pills, already used in more than half of recent abortions in the U.S., are becoming even more sought-after following the Roe ruling.
The rest of the news
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Heat warning: Unusually high temperatures are expected today in Los Angeles, the San Joaquin Valley, inland Orange County and more.
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Tax rebate agreement: Most California taxpayers would get hundreds of dollars in cash to help offset the high price of fuel and other goods under a tentative budget compromise, The Associated Press reports.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
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Craft brewer: Sapporo U.S.A. has reached an agreement to acquire Stone Brewing, the popular craft brewer based in Escondido, The Associated Press reports.
CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
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House district: Representative David Valadao, a Republican, advanced to a November runoff in a Democratic-tilting district in California’s Central Valley, The Associated Press reports.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
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Theranos trial: The fate of the technology executive Ramesh Balwani, known as Sunny, is now in the hands of a jury that will weigh criminal charges alleging he joined the Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes in an elaborate fraud, The Associated Press reports.
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Pride Month: A miles-long rainbow light display shines through downtown San Francisco to celebrate Pride Month, SFist reports.
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Pandemic response: For the third time in six years, a Sonoma County civil grand jury criticized the county’s Department of Health Services, The Press Democrat reports.
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Train crash: Three people were killed Sunday afternoon when an Amtrak commuter train smashed into a car in Brentwood in Contra Costa County.
What we’re eating
This rich and tender cornmeal cake is punctuated by tart raspberries and lots of lemon zest.
Where we’re traveling
Today’s tip comes from Ashley Conrad-Saydah, who lives in Sacramento. Ashley recommends a trip to the northeast corner of California:
Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to [email protected]. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.
Tell us
Summer is here. What’s your favorite part of the season in California?
Email us at [email protected] your stories, memories or recommendations.
And before you go, some good news
For the past 40 years, five friends have taken a group photo at the same lake along California’s border with Oregon.
The friends first met as teenagers at Santa Barbara High School and took their first picture together at Copco Lake in 1982. Since then, they have recreated the photo about every five years.
They took the most recent one, the ninth in the series, this month. Read more from CNN.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Common summer forecast (5 letters).
Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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