Just a few months after the Supreme Court struck down an onerous California law requiring pregnancy help centers to advertise abortions, the abortion lobby in California took another hit on Sunday when Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have required taxpayer-funded universities to administer chemical abortions to students.
In a statement, the pro-choice governor explained that he vetoed the legislation because it is “not necessary.”
“According to a study sponsored by supporters of this legislation, the average distance to abortion providers in campus communities varies from five to seven miles, not an unreasonable distance,” Brown said. “Because the services required by this bill are widely available off-campus, this bill is not necessary.”
Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International which runs Abortion Pill Rescue—a network of over 450 medical providers offering Abortion Pill Reversal—applauded Brown’s decision.
“Governor Brown undeniably made the right call on this invasive legislation,” Godsey said. “While we might disagree over abortion, it is important that the governor was able to recognize the extreme risk of government overreach and stop it in its tracks. The governor’s decision marks a notably different tone from the one that ushered in the so-called ‘Reproductive FACT Act’ and should be commended.”
The 2015 Reproductive FACT Act, which the Supreme Court struck down in NIFLA v. Becerra this June, required pregnancy centers to tell their clients that “California has public programs that provide immediate or low-cost access to...abortion”; and to instruct their clients, to “contact the county social services office” at a particular telephone number “[t]o determine whether you qualify.”
“The California legislature has consistently exhibited an extreme abortion bias, attempting to force schools and pregnancy centers to push abortion on their behalf,” said Godsey. “Not only does this present a serious affront to the sanctity of human life, it also serves as yet another pernicious attack on the free speech of pro-life Californians.”
SB320, which Gov. Brown vetoed Sunday, would have required health centers at the University of California and California State University campuses to offer students chemical abortions starting in 2022.
UC Berkeley students pushed for the legislation after they failed to force their campus to provide the fatal regimen in 2016. Students for Life of America, among other pro-life groups, fought hard to defeat the legislation, touring California universities to show how dangerous chemical abortions are.
Commonly referred to as the “abortion pill” or RU-486, chemical abortions are actually administered through two pills. The first pill, mifepristone, works by telling a woman’s body to stop producing progesterone—a natural hormone that is necessary to sustain a healthy pregnancy—thereby starving the baby of nutrients. The second pill, typically misoprostol, induces labor, forcing her body to expel the baby.
Abortion Pill Reversal, a treatment which was pioneered by physicians George Delgado and Matt Harrison more than a decade ago, works by giving women extra progesterone up to 72 hours after a woman takes the first pill, mifepristone.
Just yesterday, Heartbeat International, which answers well over 100 calls per month from its 24-7 helpline (1-877-558-0333) run by Option Line, reported over 500 live births from the treatment, a new milestone for the protocol.
“Thanks to the ever-growing success of Abortion Pill Reversal, women are taking back ‘choice,’ choosing life, and saving their tiny babies’ lives,” said Godsey.
