As conflict over the abortion drug escalates around the country, the Golden State is bolstering abortion within its own borders — to the tune of nearly $150 million. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) announced Thursday that his administration will be allocating over $140 million in “state investments” to support “critical health care centers and access points to life-saving care and treatment for millions of Californians.” The beneficiary? Abortion behemoth Planned Parenthood.
“California is a reproductive freedom state, and this latest investment continues to show our belief in protecting access to essential health care in times of distress,” Newsom said in a press release. He pointed to President Donald Trump’s signature piece of legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill, which prohibits federal Medicaid reimbursements for the abortion industry, as the impetus for his decision. “Trump’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood put all our communities at risk as people seek basic health care from these community providers,” Newsom claimed.
“The Planned Parenthood affiliates in California are grateful to Governor Newsom and our allies in the Legislature for taking this necessary step to keep Planned Parenthood health centers open and able to provide critical services as they weather the impacts of the federal defund,” Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California CEO Jodi Hicks added. Referring to abortion as a “constitutional right,” Hicks continued, “While we know Trump and Republicans’ attacks on reproductive health care are escalating, we remain confident that our state leaders will continue to stand with Planned Parenthood patients and providers and ensure they have the support necessary to endure these ongoing assaults.”
According to the governor’s office, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates operate over 100 abortion facilities throughout the state, netting “more than a million patient visits a year…” The governor’s office also boasted of its record supporting abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Here are some of the highlights:
- In June of 2022, the very day that Roe was reversed, Newsom signed legislation to prevent officials in pro-life states from suing or prosecuting abortionists in California who committed abortions for women visiting from states with pro-life laws. He also “invested over $200 million” in the abortion industry.
- In September of 2022, Newsom and California’s Democrat-controlled legislature approved laws shielding California abortionists from criminal or civil liabilities related to abortion and barring cooperation with authorities in pro-life states.
- In November that same year, Newsom led efforts to successfully enshrine a “right” to abortion in California’s state constitution.
- Over the course of 2023, Newsom founded the Reproductive Freedom Alliance, a coalition of blue-state governors dedicated to furthering abortion; procured a “stockpile” of abortion drugs for California; and supported then-President Joe Biden’s dismantling of safeguards surrounding the prescription and consumption of the abortion drug mifepristone, which ultimately allowed abortionists to prescribe mifepristone via telehealth and online platforms and ship them across state lines into pro-life states.
- Just last month, Newsom signed “landmark legislation” allowing abortionists to prescribe mifepristone to patients anonymously and shielding pro-abortion attorneys from “State Bar discipline” in states with pro-life laws.
Newsom’s abortion regime has already permitted California abortionists to prescribe and ship abortion drugs to residents of red states with pro-life laws and shielded them from prosecution. For example, Louisiana issued an arrest warrant for a California abortionist who shipped mifepristone to a Bayou State resident who posed as his estranged wife online to procure the drugs, which he then hid in his wife’s food in order to abort their unborn baby. According to a lawsuit filed by Louisiana officials, abortionists in blue states like California have mailed “thousands” of abortion drugs across state lines into Louisiana.
Numerous pro-life leaders have called on the Trump administration to empower red states to enforce their pro-life laws and execute arrest warrants against out-of-state abortionists who ship abortion drugs across state lines and to restore previous mifepristone regulations requiring in-person physician visits and requiring the drug be prescribed, dispensed, and consumed in a physician’s office.
“Mifepristone has become a murder weapon. The drug is under review because it is unsafe for women — but it is also a tool used by killers — many times against a woman’s will or without her knowledge,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins stated earlier this month. “The Trump administration should repeal approval of mifepristone altogether, but it should also swiftly adopt a policy that aligns with its declaration that abortion belongs under state jurisdiction.”
Mary Szoch, director of FRC’s Center for Human Dignity, told The Washington Stand, “As Californians deal with a number of issues from extreme weather, to wildfires, to homelessness, to lawlessness, to a lack of housing, to an insecure job market, Governor Gavin Newsom is fixated on making sure Planned Parenthood is able to kill babies and that Californian abortionists are able to ship drugs killing babies to abusers who live out of state so as to harm women and kill more unborn children.”
“Newsom is completely out of touch with what people need and want,” Szoch added. “While he tries to paint himself as a moderate, it would be difficult to find someone in power who is more deeply entrenched in the culture of death. Californians deserve better.”
