California: The Downward Spiral, Pt.1
Wrath is Coming...
On September 29, 2022 Gov. Gavin Newsom had a heyday signing away the rights of everyone living in California. In fact, of the 1,166 bills the legislature sent him to consider, he signed 997 and vetoed 169. This page reviews some of what has become state law.
California Becomes Sanctuary State for Abortion
Across the U.S., 26 states are likely to ban or restrict abortions after the Roe v. Wade ruling, which, by the way, did not make abortion illegal throughout America, but sent the decision about abortion back to individual states. Taking a different posture, California immediately positioned itself to be a sanctuary state to support access to abortion. The state is preparing to welcome and support women from around the country who seek to terminate their pregnancy.
Within the massive package of legislation, several pro-abortion bills were included:
SB 1375 expanded abortion training options for providers, allowing nurse practitioners with advanced training to provide first trimester abortion independently.
AB 2223 ensures that no one in California will be investigated, prosecuted, or incarcerated for performing an abortion. AB2223 has the word ‘perinatal’ in it. Meaning, if a baby is alive AFTER a botched abortion, there is a window of time where the practitioner will not be investigated or prosecuted for murder if the infant is left to die.
SB 1142 provides funding for an “Abortion Information Webpage” where access to abortion will be listed. The webpage will provide information on how to find the nearest and most accessible abortion provider, and how to obtain financial support for the procedure, including funding for ‘travel, lodging and other needs.’
What about the long-term ramifications of abortion?
A study published in 2019 in Medicina, Affective and Substance Abuse Disorders Following Abortion by Pregnancy Intention in the United States, evaluated the long-term health consequences of women who opted for an abortion if they wanted vs didn’t want to have the baby.
Approximately 14.7% of pregnancy terminations in women who wanted to have the baby were primarily undertaken due to severe genetic defects or congenital anomalies. This number, estimated to be approximately 7 million abortions, pales next to the estimated 56 million global abortions on demand each year from 2010–2014 reported by World Health Organization surveillance.
Three longitudinal studies in New Zealand, Norway, and the United States measured health outcomes after an abortion. All three studies found significant post-abortion increases in the risk of addictive disorders, including depression, thoughts of suicide, anxiety, and abuse of illicit drugs, marijuana, or alcohol.
The justification of abortion on grounds of mental health assumes that procuring an abortion will typically result in less psychological and life distress than bringing the pregnancy to term. The present study adds to a strong research consensus that challenges the basis of that assumption. Although some studies have found little to no psychological distress associated with abortion, to date, no study has documented mental health benefits for women from abortion.
A significant number of women who experienced a miscarriage or had an abortion exhibited mental health complications. Grauerholz, et al (2021) found 39% of woman had prolonged grief reactions, from months to years, after the loss. Those who reported longer bereavement times related relationship problems, substance misuse, depression, suicidal ideation, and PTSD.
NOTICE To California Legislators and Governor Newsom:
By promoting murder-on-demand of the unborn, you will have blood on your hands for all of eternity. Proverbs 6:16-19 clearly spells out your evil deeds:
The Lord hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to Him:
Haughty eyes (pride),
A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,
A false witness that utters lies, and
One who spreads discord (rumors, strife) among brothers.
Offering Better Options
Fighting against ‘abortion on demand,’ Heartbeat International has been working to make abortion ‘unwanted today and unthinkable for future generations.’ Founded in 1971, it has the most expansive network in the world, with more than 3,000 affiliated pregnancy help locations in more than 70 countries. All of Heartbeat International’s affiliated pregnancy help providers, whether they are pregnancy help centers, maternity homes or adoption services, make a commitment to serve their community with honesty, integrity, and equality.
Tracy Robinson’s documentary, “The Matter of Life,” is an award-winning film that cuts through the angry rhetoric and divisiveness about the issue of abortion and presents a message that goes beyond pro-life and pro-abortion arguments. It forces us to ask the question: Are the unborn one of us? The film features stories former abortion clinic workers, historians, religious workers, pro-life atheists, and a physician who had performed more than 1,000 abortions before seriously evaluating what the procedure entailed.
This is a MUST-SEE documentary; I recently watched it prior to interviewing Tracy for my podcasts, This Week with DrT and Deep Dive with DrT on August 29, 2022. You can watch and listen to that podcast interview here.
One additional resource is the website, AfterAbortion.org. Put together by David C. Reardon, Ph.D., director of The Elliot Institute, he has long been recognized as a leading expert on the after-effects of pregnancy loss on women. He is the author of numerous books and popular and scholarly articles on this topic, including the 38 page article, published in 2018, “The abortion and mental health controversy: A comprehensive literature review of common ground agreements, disagreements, actionable recommendations, and research opportunities.”
The website, which unfortunately was last updated in 2016, remains a wealth of information, including a page with links to a long list of studies published on PubMed and a review index of articles dating back to 1994, show that the long-term adverse consequences of abortion and fetal loss has been known for a long time.
CONCLUSION:
I don’t know how many California legislators are physicians, pharmacists or have a medical background but even if there are only a few, they should be reading the medical literature and educating their colleagues. This was just a cursory overview of the long-term ramifications of the hundreds of legislative hammers that are about to land on Californians.
From 2020 to 2021, more than 249,000 people left California. Most likely, the exodus has just begun.
I publish a Christian inspirational substack called Walk With God every Sunday. Find it here.
Why is it so difficult to jump through the hoops in the adoption process in various Western countries where it is very easy to access an abortion? Could it be deliberate? If this was managed by caring groups outside of goverments with far less red tape, it could offer good homes to many babies that would not need to be aborted.
We are already seeing the beginnings of it in God’s judgement on our wicked and evil societies and politicians. It’s called Chaos.