Two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion, officials gathered at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse to reflect on the impacts and look toward the future.
“A nationwide reproductive healthcare crisis has left one in three women of reproductive age living without access to abortion care,” said Congressman Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara.
“And extremists who have waged this continuous war on reproductive care are now fighting to restrict access to abortion, medication, to IVF, and even contraception.”
The Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case ruling allowed states to restrict and ban abortion care access, and several have done so in the two years since then. Hundreds of people gathered at the courthouse on June 24, 2022 to protest the ruling.
On Monday, Carbajal said he and his colleagues are using every tool at their disposal to make sure women in California continue to have access to contraception, abortion care, and other medical needs.
Jenna Tosh, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood California Central Coast, shared how the loss of Roe has affected medical care over the past two years, and how local Planned Parenthood staff have adjusted.
One of the biggest changes has been a significant increase in abortion care, especially for the Central Coast clinic, possibly because of growing restrictions in other parts of the country.
“It is difficult to tell exactly how many patients are traveling because sometimes patients come into this state and we may not know where they’re coming from,” Tosh said. “But I can tell you that since Dobbs, we have seen over a 40% increase in abortion.”
Additionally, she stated that abortions across the state have increased by 20%.
One of the driving forces of this is the banning of abortion in other states. One of these states is Florida, where a law banning abortion after six weeks took effect in May.
According to Tosh, the state of Florida was the second largest provider of abortion care in the country.
“Losing access to abortion in Florida essentially means that the entire southeast of the country has now lost access to care,” Tosh said.
She said abortion bans disproportionately affect Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities, young people, people with low incomes, and other groups who already faced hurdles to receiving reproductive care.
Second District County Supervisor Laura Capps talked about the need to protect access to contraception– saying it has a ripple effect on women in the community.
“It advances women’s economic empowerment. It advances educational opportunities. It enhances children’s well-being in the long run,” Capps said.
“The bottom line is that without contraception, women are not in control of their destiny.”
