How some states are moving to protect abortion access

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• Geoff Bennett:

  The nation is coming to grips with a new reality today. Roe v. Wade is no longer the law of the land after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the landmark ruling that legalized abortion.

  From coast to coast, Americans taking to the streets protesting the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. In Phoenix Friday night, a protest involving 1000s of people in support of abortion rights at the Arizona capitol came to an end with law enforcement using tear gas to scatter the crowds.

• Protesters:

  My body, my choice.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And demonstrators mostly opposing the ruling returned to the epicenter today outside the Supreme Court. President Biden today criticized the court for making what he called terrible decisions.

  Joe Biden, (D) U.S. President: Jill and I know how painful and devastating that decision is for so many Americans. And I mean so many Americans.

• Geoff Bennett:

  That's as conservative celebrate what they see as a victory 50 years in the making. Almost half the states are expected to outlaw or severely restrict abortion as a result of the Supreme Court's decision. In Oklahoma abortion was automatically banned on Friday because of a so-called trigger law.

  Gov. Kevin Stitt, (R) Oklahoma: It is my hope that the rest of America will follow Oklahoma's lead.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Performing an abortion is now a criminal offence in Oklahoma punishable by a fine and prison time.

• John O’Connor, Attorney General, Oklahoma:

  The womb is now in Oklahoma, the safest place for a child to be.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The court's decision was by far the most significant and controversial dispute of its term. The justice is now eliminating a long held constitutional right.

  As conservatives across the country celebrate the Supreme Court's decision that struck down the nationwide right to an abortion, Democratic leaders are quickly moving to make sure they ensure access to reproductive care where state laws and state politics allow it.

  For more on those efforts, I'm now joined by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Thanks so much for being with us. And I want to ask you, start with this, California, Washington, Oregon, if all formed an alliance to ensure abortion access on the West Coast. What exactly will that look like?

• Rob Bonta, California Attorney General:

  Well, it's a West Coast offense that we are creating in the spirit of when we work together, we can accomplish more, when we work together there's nothing that we can't do and it looks like greater access to abortion care, more resources to support those, both in our states respectively, as well as throughout the nation who will not be able to get care after the Dobbs' decision 26 states would trigger laws and who we expect to criminalize or otherwise outlaw abortion will need a place to go to seek reproductive health care. So, in a moment like this, it's important to do what we do, show compassion and care and collaborate and team up. And that's what that West Coast offense is about.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Well, how will you handle the legal and I think the more immediate issue are the logistical challenges. More than half of California's abortion clinics, as I understand it, they're concentrated in five counties, California is a state that has 58 counties. And research shows that the demand of people finding their way to California that it could increase 30 fold, how will you handle it?

• Rob Bonta:

  Well, when it comes to the legal aspects, we believe we're on very solid legal ground with the bills that I'm supporting the movement through the legislature with the bills that are already in place, which make California a very strong reproductive freedom state, the right to reproductive health care and an abortion are alive and well, fully legal in California. And we are making historical investments in expanding access to care including for individuals from other states who need it and can only find it in California, as well as filling those gaps that you mentioned in California, we're doubling down on expanding access to reproductive health care, and abortion, including within our own state. So we'll see what those historical investments do. And if we need more, the bottom line is we're going to take care of one another and take care of those who need access to abortion care and reproductive health care.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Taking sort of the big picture perspective here, what does it mean that we'll now be living in a bifurcated America when it comes to the ability to get an abortion where people living apart, you know, living in wide parts of the south and the Midwest, don't have the same access that people on the coasts do?

• Rob Bonta:

  It means that people are going to get hurt. People are going to die. Health will be undermined. That is the bottom line of this very dangerous and devastating decision, which is outrageous. And unconscionable is an attack on pregnant people and on women, on equality, on freedom, on privacy. It's a very sad day and dark day yesterday, and we will have states, 26 of them we believe who will ban reproductive health care and abortion care. And we will have states like California, which will be safe havens, which will be sanctuaries place, a place where abortion is fully legal and will remain so. In fact, in California, there's work afoot now to make it a constitutional protected right to health care for abortion, so it's going to hurt people because access will not be as broad and as a uniformly distributed throughout the nation. But California will do its part to make sure that those who need care can come to California and receive an abortion and receive access to reproductive health care.

• Geoff Bennett:

  In the couple of minutes we have left in his concurring opinion, as you will know, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the High Court should revisit all cases built on similar legal footing, including cases that guarantee the right to same-sex marriage. In 2008, California voters approved a statewide ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage that was later overturned. But what steps if any, is your state taking to address that right?

• Rob Bonta:

  Well, Justice Thomas made his position and his intention clear, you know, that the Dobbs case is unique and historical and unprecedented in a very terrible and painful way in that it eradicated and abolished a long standing constitutional right. That's been on the books for 50 years. And it appears that at least for Justice Thomas, as he expressed in his concurring opinion, he's not done yet, seeking to rollback rights. And, you know, right now we're in a place where our children, our daughters, my two daughters, and our young people are living in a world where they have less rights and their parents. That's wrong. We need to change that. And we are taking steps knowing what else might be coming, just as we did here. We were prepared for the Dobbs decision. We hope for the best. We are prepared for the worst. California is on it when it comes to greater access to reproductive health care and abortion. The same was true with respect to the Bruen decision, a Second Amendment case that came out the day before Dobbs and the same will be true with respect to other potential abolishment of rights and striking down of rights when it comes to access to contraception, same-sex marriage or sexual intimacy. So we will be ready as we were here.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Rob Bonta is the Attorney General for the State of California, I appreciate your time, sir.

• Rob Bonta:

  Thanks for having me, Geoff.