As Congress continues to target reproductive rights, a group of 20 Democratic governors announced an alliance this week aimed at expanding and protecting abortion rights in their states.
The Reproductive Freedom Alliance, as it’s called, is led by California Governor Gavin Newsom and comes about eight months after the US Supreme Court upheld federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade.
“In the face of this unprecedented attack by states fighting abortion rights and their advocates in court, we pledge to work together to strengthen abortion firewalls across America. This fight is far from over,” the governors said in a joint statement. Tuesday.
He specifically highlighted the importance of protecting access to medical abortion, which some countries have recently tried to stop providing.
While most governors join the ice from states with strong abortion protections, some oversee states with strict restrictions on the procedure. That includes Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, who could not stop the almost-total, abortion ban pre-Roe from going into effect after the decision of the Supreme Court, and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who pushed back in the country’s 20 weeks. abortion ban and successfully vetoed many other legislative attempts to limit the procedure.
“Every Wisconsinite should have the right to make their own reproductive health decisions without interference from politicians,” Evers said in a statement Tuesday. “This is a right that I will not stop fighting for as long as I am governor – not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it is the will of the people.”
While governors have little influence over abortion access in states with tough abortion restrictions, they can take steps to make the procedure accessible to patients abroad. Newsom has signed several targeted bills, including one that would prohibit California law enforcement from cooperating with out-of-state jurisdictions to prosecute anyone who comes to the state for abortion care.
California’s governor praised the new alliance as a way to expand those efforts, saying it “will stand as a firewall to fight and protect providers, patients, and all those affected by these attacks on their basic rights.”
Since the fall of Roe, twelve states have outlawed abortion. Most are concentrated in the South, further isolating patients there and forcing them to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to access abortion care. Several other countries are expected to follow suit.