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California Governor Gavin Newsom announced this Sunday a advertising campaign aimed at countering proposals in several Republican-led states to ban travel to other U.S. jurisdictions for access to abortions and additional reproductive health care.
The advertising campaign in various states and an online petition initiative will begin this week with a television commercial about a measure under consideration in Tennessee.
The "abortion trafficking" bill, promoted by state Republican lawmakers, would make it a felony for an adult to recruit, harbor, or transport a minor for an abortion without the consent of her parents.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," California Governor Newsom said that similar restrictions inspired by a law already passed in Idaho are also being proposed in Oklahoma and Mississippi.
"The conditions are much more pernicious than they even appear," said Newsom. "These gentlemen are not only restricting the rights, the personal determination of a young woman to decide whether to have a child or not, but they are also determining her fate in terms of her future in life, by saying that she can't even travel."
Supporters of the Tennessee measure have said that it could criminalize not only taking a minor to get an abortion but also providing information about nearby abortion services or informing about states with less strict abortion laws.
Republican state representative Jason Zachary, who is co-sponsoring the proposal, has said it's "simply a parental rights bill."
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision in 2022, anti-abortion activists have pressured states to ban abortions and find ways to prevent pregnant women and teenagers from crossing into other states for care.