More Heat Coming

Barricades erected around the Supreme Court
building on Monday night (Daily Beast)

Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, which means that abortion has been a constitutional right for nearly a half-century.

Your humble blogger has strongly resisted being drawn into the argument: each side has bedrock principles, stating an opinion would cause me to be hated by someone, and it's not a subject--to be callous about it--that affects me or anyone I know personally.

Within hours of the leaking of the draft opinion that would overturn Roe I've been forwarded angry texts, tweets, and emails by the pro-choice side. All this merely confirms my decision to stay out of the discussion.

By the way, what does it mean for Californians if Roe is overturned?

Yet even if the Supreme Court outlaws Roe, abortion would remain legal in California, where lawmakers have written its protections into state law.

Even in 1981, after the Legislature virtually eliminated Medi-Cal funding of abortions for poor women, the state Supreme Court ruled that California’s constitutional right to privacy required Medi-Cal to cover abortions just as it covered childbirth.

The state’s high court relied on the same privacy right in 1997 when it struck down a law requiring parental consent for minors’ abortions, similar to laws in other states that the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld under federal standards. Roe vs. Wade also relies on a constitutional right to privacy, which the Supreme Court declared in 1965.

So California will become a refuge for women seeking abortions if the Supreme Court overrules Roe.

The state began preparing last year for the likelihood of losing Roe vs. Wade and establishing California as a national leader in maintaining the right to terminate a pregnancy.

The anger of pro-choice Californians is not over their own rights being taken away. Like the transgender-bathroom and "don't say gay" children's education bills, we can't resist telling other states what to do.