Local civic leaders champion need to preserve reproductive rights amidst 2 year anniversary of the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—It’s a landmark decision that has left many anxious about the future.
“I was born a year before Roe versus Wade, so I don't I didn't know a different reality. Now we see what's playing out,” said Santa Barbara County Supervisor Laura Capps.
Fifty years of precedent was overturned exactly 2 years ago when the Supreme Court ruled in the Dobbs case, taking away a woman's federal right to an abortion, and leaving it to each state to decide.
“ Ever since the Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization decision came down, there has just been widespread chaos and confusion across the country and a public health crisis, really, as many states moved to ban abortion across the country,” said CEO and President of Planned Parenthood California Central Coast Jenna Tosh.
Abortion is legal in California and health care providers are seeing people from other states come to places like Santa Barbara for help.
“ Providers are seeing heartbreaking stories from patients who are traveling hundreds and even sometimes thousands of miles away for care, sometimes spending their last dime to get here,” said Tosh.
Planned Parenthood says 21 states have a ban on some or all abortions, which impacts roughly 28 million people.
Congressman Salud Carbajal says the decisions made in other states could be straining resources here.
“Many women are coming to our state and our communities for that care. So certainly it dilutes the resources that are available and makes them makes us have to stretch them more and find more resources so that we could we could fulfill the entire need,” said the District 24 Democrat.
But Carbajal says the battle for women’s reproductive rights is not over.
“It's so important for the American people and residents here on the Central Coast to turn out and vote because elections have consequences. And that is the best way to make sure your voice is heard.”
