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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Lawmakers Press for CA Constitutional Amendment to Protect Abortion Rights

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022   

Leaders from the California Legislative Women's Caucus vowed to protect a person's right to have an abortion in the Golden State after a leaked draft opinion appears to show the U.S. Supreme Court is ready to overturn the decision known as Roe v. Wade this summer. That would turn the matter over to the states.

Abortion is and will remain legal in California, but now some lawmakers want to cement that right by putting it into the state Constitution. Caucus Chair Assemblymember Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, said she feels if the Supreme Court issues this ruling, it would be an unprecedented rollback of people's rights.

"Overturning Roe v. Wade is not going to stop abortions," she said, "but rather it's going to lead to unsafe and deadly abortions, especially for our most marginalized and vulnerable communities."

If the constitutional amendment passes both houses of the state Legislature by a two-thirds margin, it would be placed onto the November ballot.

The author of the draft opinion, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, argued that the privacy rights and the due-process clause don't apply to the termination of a pregnancy. Other opponents cite religious objections.

Jodi Hicks, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said low-income women of color from conservative states would be disproportionately affected.

"People that are denied access to abortions are four times more likely to end up in poverty," she said.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, said she wants the state to establish a fund that would accept private donations to help people from other states travel to California for abortion care.

"California will continue to be a beacon of hope for women and families who need access for reproductive care and abortion, here in our own state and across the country," she said. "We will not leave the women and families impacted by the backwards, reckless policies of other states without options."


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