California Governor Newsom launches abortion travel ban ad campaign in Alabama
California Governor Gavin Newsom is taking aim at states considering abortion travel bans with the launch of a new ad campaign.
Newsom's Campaign for Democracy ad is set to air in Alabama starting Monday. The governor tweeted out the ad in a social media post Sunday morning.
Alabama’s abortion ban has no exceptions for rape or incest.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) April 21, 2024
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
The text with the video post reads, "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."
The 30-second commercial shows two nervous young women driving in a car passing a sign that reads "State Line 1 Mile."
"We're almost there. You're gonna make it," the passenger tells the woman behind the wheel just before they hear a siren and are pulled over by a state trooper.
"Trump Republicans want to criminalize young Alabama women who travel for reproductive care," a voiceover says as the state trooper walks up to the car.
"Miss, I'm going to need you to step out of the vehicle and take a pregnancy test," the trooper says, waving a test stick in one hand. The next shot shows the driver leaning on the hood of her car as the trooper puts her in handcuffs.
"Stop them by taking action at RightToTravel.org," the voiceover intones as the ad ends.
Alabama is currently weighing a bill that would make it a crime to help women travel outside the state in order to receive an abortion. The ad is part of a larger effort to combat travel bans across the United States. Newsom was behind a similar ad that ran in Tennessee.
The RightToTravel.org website says that those two states and Oklahoma are considering bills that ban minors from traveling out of state to get an abortion without parental consent, even if it's a case of incest or if there is abuse in the family.
It isn't the first action the governor has taken in the political battle over abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June of 2022. Two days after the ruling, Newsom partnered with the governors of Oregon and Washington to issue a multi-state commitment promising to defend access to reproductive health care, including abortion and contraceptives.
In September of that year, he launched a billboard campaign in seven of the most restrictive anti-abortion states urging women seeking the procedure to come to California for treatment. He also signed more than a dozen new abortion laws protecting women's reproductive rights and ordered the state to end its contract with Walgreens after the pharmacy giant indicated it would not sell an abortion pill by mail in some conservative-led states.