Ever since middle school, Jennefer Russo wanted to be a doctor—by the time she entered college she knew she wanted to be one who performed abortions. The reason was simple. As she told Ms., “I grew up watching the impact that abortion had on the women in my life, and I saw that it allowed them to have autonomy and relative control over their lives.”
It would take only two months to stop the DuPont Clinic from opening.
A majority of Californians have supported the right to abortion from the moment it became a political issue, and California law and the state Supreme Court have protected that right for decades.
But the state’s Reproductive Privacy Act was just a statute—a bill passed by the legislature and signed into law by the governor. If one day the political winds changed or some cabal of rogue lawmakers grabbed power, the legislation protecting the right to abortion in California could be overturned too. An amendment to the constitution, on the other hand, would remain untouchable.
Just two weeks later, Kristin Turner—of the extremist groups Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) and Pro-Life San Francisco—made that threat specific.
“We’re shutting it down,” Turner wrote.
This is basically one group threatening to commit crimes in a posh neighborhood, and the city choosing to punish the victim so that the rich people won’t be inconvenienced. Instead of going after the people threatening or committing crimes, they choose to trample on rights to avoid commotion.
