Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his state’s launch of seven pro-abortion billboards that invoke the Bible on Thursday.
The billboards advertise the recently launched website abortion.ca.gov, which provides information to help women in states where abortion is restricted or banned to access the procedure in California. The billboards are going up in Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi, South Dakota, South Carolina and Oklahoma, all of which have placed bans or restrictions on abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
The billboards in Mississippi and Oklahoma invoked passages from the Bible to promote their abortion site. The billboards quoted Mark 12:31 — “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.”
(The other commandment to which “these” refers is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”)
@GovStitt this will be going up in your state. pic.twitter.com/snPcTIZaPv
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 15, 2022
@tatereeves the people of Mississippi deserve to know they have access to the care you are refusing to provide. This will be launching in your state today. pic.twitter.com/8qg7psYT2j
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 15, 2022
Some of the billboards included a photograph of a woman in handcuffs. Another showed a woman looking distressed in her living room. All of the ads claimed that the state “doesn’t own your body. You do.”
Newsom said California will “defend” a woman’s right to undergo an abortion by encouraging women in “anti-freedom” states to travel to California to obtain abortions.
“Just launched billboards in 7 of the most restrictive anti-abortion states that explain how women can access care–no matter where they live. To any woman seeking an abortion in these anti-freedom states: CA will defend your right to make decisions about your own health,” he tweeted. (RELATED: ‘We Have Your Back’: Gavin Newsom Personally Promotes California’s Abortion Website)
NEW: Just launched billboards in 7 of the most restrictive anti-abortion states that explain how women can access care–no matter where they live.
To any woman seeking an abortion in these anti-freedom states: CA will defend your right to make decisions about your own health.— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 15, 2022
On Aug. 31, California’s legislature passed a package of 13 abortion laws to launch the site, prohibit states from obtaining records of patients or doctors who obtained or performed abortions in California, allow nurse practitioners and midwives to perform abortions in the first trimester without a doctor present and prohibit investigations into the death of unborn children after 20 weeks of gestation.