City of Los Angeles officials have continued efforts to distinguish the city from parts of the country seeking to restrict abortion access pending the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade by the United States Supreme Court.
The most recent effort is a letter from City Attorney Mike Feuer to President Joe Biden urging him to convene a “presidential task force for women’s medical freedom.”
“Today, with our nation already torn apart by division, it is neither fair nor humane to abolish the human rights of women and girls in half of the states in America simply because of where they live” , Feuer said on Friday. “These women and girls need us now.”
Feuer asked the Biden administration to create a task force to “establish and implement strategies to support women and girls where needed,” according to a letter Feuer sent to the president.
Feuer proposed that the task force work to expand the capacity of clinics in states that do not make abortion illegal, coordinate logistics and funding to provide housing and transportation for people traveling long distances to seeking an abortion, funds legal defense for people who need abortions and their providers who are targeted by premium laws in states that prohibit abortion, protects medical providers in states where abortion is legal and who see patients in other states, extend and secure the right to send and receive abortion drugs across state lines, and provide resettlement support for people who need abortions in other states and fear legal repercussions when they return home.
“As I write this, states like California and Connecticut are already working on laws to strengthen abortion access and protections,” Feuer said. “Additionally, some companies are stepping up to offer assistance to their workers who must travel to other states to obtain abortions. But what if you don’t live in California or work for such a company? »
Feuer’s letter comes a day after Los Angeles City Council Speaker Nury Martinez and Councilmen Nithya Raman and Monica Rodriguez called for state or federal legislation to codify the right to safe abortion.
Martinez also introduced a motion last month to prepare the city for a possible influx of people from other states seeking abortions in California.
“A woman’s right to an abortion is crucial in our fight for equality in America,” Martinez said. “We cannot ask women to risk their lives by revoking their right to a safe medical procedure. I am with women, California is with women, and today our city reaffirmed that Los Angeles is with and for women.
This motion, if passed by City Council, would direct the Chief Legislative Analyst to coordinate the city’s response with the Los Angeles County Departments of Health Services and Public Health. The CLA would identify how the city could respond to a possible increase in demand for abortions in Los Angeles in the event that other parts of the country ban abortions or enact stricter measures against them.
At the state level, Governor Gavin Newsom; Senate President pro tempore Toni G. Atkins, D-San Diego; and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, voiced support for creating a California constitutional amendment to guarantee abortion rights in the state.
“We know we cannot trust the Supreme Court to protect reproductive rights, so California will build a firewall around that right into our state constitution,” the three said in a joint statement Monday.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state “will do what California has always done, which is fight, fight for our values, fight for our people, fight for our rights.
“This includes fighting for the right to abortion, the right to reproductive freedom, the right to privacy, the right for women to control their own bodies without any interference from politicians. From our local level to our state at our federal level, this fight, this ferocity is fully visible,” he added.