Under a new state law, all UC and Cal State campuses will start providing medication abortion beginning Jan. 1. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, opening up abortion appointments on university campuses could ease pressure on local clinics, which will likely see an influx of out-of-state patients.
Roe v. Wade coverage
Posted inPolitics & Policy
‘I lose sleep over this’: A devout anti-abortion advocate explains life in ‘Wayne’s World’
Santa Cruz’s Wayne Shaffer doesn’t strike you as any sort of modern political activist on the front lines of the post-Roe v. Wade battlefront. He is, however, a longtime community fixture in providing services for women in need of food, shelter and assistance in bringing their babies to term. Shaffer admits this can be a hard place to convince others to agree with his religious convictions and social conservatism, but that hasn’t prevented him from trying to spread the gospel as he knows it.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
A mother-daughter moment: Gail Pellerin and daughter Emily lament the surreal post-Roe world they share
Gail Pellerin — who is running for California State Assembly District 28 — had an abortion when she was 26. She told her daughter, Emily, her story just before Emily left for college. It was hard for the then-Santa Cruz County Clerk to make herself that vulnerable. But her openness changed their relationship and made Emily more willing to talk to Gail about her sexual assault a few years later. In a Community Voices opinion piece, they talk about their mother-daughter bond, their fury over the end of Roe and the fight that lies ahead to secure abortion rights for women.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Conversations with Jody: An OB-GYN talks life post-Roe and why Santa Cruz could soon see more late-term abortions
Laetitia Oderman is one of two Santa Cruz doctors who provide second-trimester abortions. In this first “Conversations with Jody,” feature, she talks to Community Voices editor Jody K. Biehl about the end of Roe and what bans on abortions in dozens of states will mean for California, Santa Cruz and for her personally.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
What would California’s constitutional amendment on abortion do?
Senate Constitutional Amendment 10 would, if approved by voters on the November ballot, further codify the state’s already progressive reproductive rights.
Posted inHealth & Wellness
Santa Cruz already seeing out-of-state abortion patients as Planned Parenthood ramps up regional services
Officials in Planned Parenthood’s Mar Monte region are preparing for 250 to 500 out-of-state patients seeking abortions each year across its 35 centers. Two of those centers, in Watsonville and downtown Santa Cruz, are expected to see some of those patients, but it’s not clear to officials just how many. Each site is seeking to hire one full-time provider.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
California constitutional amendment securing abortion, contraceptive rights goes to voters
State lawmakers approved a measure Monday that will ask California voters in November whether to enshrine abortion and contraceptives rights in state Constitution.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
LGBTQ Californians worry they will be next to lose rights after Roe decision
Advocates for the queer community fear the Supreme Court’s conservative majority will target LGBTQ people next, possibly by reversing earlier rulings such as legalized same-sex intimacy and same-sex marriage.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
One Friday in the new, post-Roe America: How losing abortion access changes us all
Soon, the Santa Cruz area’s Planned Parenthood’s offices will see 250 to 500 more patients per week, out-of-state refugees pushed west by Friday’s Supreme Court decision to reverse Roe v. Wade. But those are only the ones who have the money and connections to get to us. Jessica Dieseldorff, a nurse practitioner at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in Watsonville, writes about our new reality, both for those coming to California and for those of us here.
Posted inUncategorized
America after Roe: Is the West Coast ascendant as we wonder about the United in the U.S.A. this July Fourth?
The “West Coast offense” pact among the governors of California, Oregon and Washington offers up an immediate and meaningful sense of unity, Wallace Baine writes, and with red states engaged in an enormous and ultimately self-destructive act of “get off my property” purification, he’d much rather wave the flag of that new alliance than the Stars and Stripes.