(LifeSiteNews) – An advocacy group helmed by far-left California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a new ad suggesting that police will pull over random women for pregnancy tests under state pro-life laws.
The ad, shared over the weekend by Newsom, shows two young women nervously driving toward a state line. “We’re almost there; you’re gonna make it!” the passenger assures the driver just before a squad car flashes its lights in the distance.
Alabama’s abortion ban has no exceptions for rape or incest.
Now, Republicans are trying to criminalize young women’s travel to receive abortion care.
We cannot let them get away with this. pic.twitter.com/gHbYJYlEXk
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) April 21, 2024
The ad depicts a police officer telling the driver to exit her vehicle and “take a pregnancy test” before being handcuffed and pinned to the hood of her car as an announcer declares, “Trump Republicans want to criminalize young Alabama women who travel for reproductive care.”
The ad ends by telling viewers to fight back (meaning sign a petition) at RightToTravel.org, a Campaign for Democracy landing page claiming that “Three states – Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Alabama – are considering bills that ban minors from traveling out of state to get an abortion without parental consent — no matter if it’s a case of incest or if there is abuse in the family.”
“These are states that basically want to imprison women and young girls,” the page declares. “It’s a backdoor nationwide abortion ban, denying women the opportunity to go to a freedom state. Taking away the right to travel that’s guaranteed by the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
In reality, however, the campaign’s own language confirms that the reality of the situation is not at all like the ad depicts. On top of safeguarding parental rights that society recognizes in far less consequential matters, parental involvement rules for underage abortions stop the practice from being used by sexual abusers to cover up and continue their crimes, as is often the case (sometimes with Planned Parenthood’s knowledge and cooperation).
Fourteen states currently ban all or most abortions. But the abortion lobby is working feverishly to cancel out those deterrent effects by deregulated interstate distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, and enshrining abortion “rights” in state constitutions.
Leading arguably the most liberal state in the Union, Newsom has worked to keep and strengthen California’s status as an abortion haven. Last month, the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls reported that abortions among college students are rising thanks to his subsidizing of abortion pills on campuses.