The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a travel ban that restricts official LA County business to the state of Alabama for one year.
The unprecedented travel ban is a response to the anti-abortion bill signed into law this month by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R).
The law bans all abortions excepting cases where pregnancy threatens the life of the mother; the law does not make exceptions for rape or incest.
“What this bill is designed to do is to go to the Supreme Court and challenge that particular precedent that said in 1973 that abortion is legal on demand essentially any time, anywhere, for any reason,” said Alabama State Senator Clyde Chambliss (R).
Officials in LA view the law as an attack on reproductive rights that will endanger women and families.
“Everyone knows that banning abortion won’t stop women from accessing abortion services even when it puts them in unsafe medical situations,” argues LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. “In Alabama, women who have the money will be able to safely access abortion, but women who are poor will not.”
In addition to the travel ban, the four board members present at Tuesday’s meeting (all women) decided to send letters to the governors of the following states demanding they repeal laws restricting access to abortion: Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Utah.
“This challenge by Alabama and other states would overturn decades of precedent,” says Hilda L. Solis, head of the LA Board and former Cabinet member under President Obama.
“We must stand in solidarity and in opposition against extremist and unconstitutional laws that put the health and well-being of families at risk…the Constitutional and human right to a safe and legal abortion is part of the very fabric of the United States. As such, LA County will stand against all attempts to dismantle the protections afforded by Roe v. Wade and the US Constitution.”
Author’s Note: LA’s travel ban is an immature response from a state that is so leftwing it wants to secede from the rest of the country. LA has no right to push its moral views on Alabama or any other state. All the travel ban will accomplish is economic damage for both parties and embarrassment for the Board.