Politics
Ahead of second Trump term, California vows 'ironclad' abortion access
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers are rushing to introduce legislation that reaffirms the state’s role as a reproductive rights “haven” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House and abortion rights advocates warn of an uncertain future.
Abortion remains legal in California, home to the strongest reproductive rights in the nation — unlike in some states, there is no required waiting period or counseling before the procedure, and minors can get abortions without parental involvement. In 2022, voters solidified abortion access in the state Constitution after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right, limiting healthcare for millions of women.
But as Trump prepares to take the White House again, California’s Democratic leaders are adamant that not enough has been done to secure reproductive access in case of further federal rollbacks.
“The truth is, this is an urgent and dangerous situation,” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said at a news conference in Sacramento on Monday, pointing to renewed legal challenges to the distribution of abortion pills. “The right-wing extremists continue to wage attack after attack on our bodily autonomy at the expense of the health or life of pregnant persons.”
Bonta, a Democrat, said new legislative proposals will make reproductive rights in California “ironclad.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s earlier focus on abortion rights after Trump’s first term — including ad campaigns in red states — have drawn criticism from California Republicans skeptical of his national political motives and praise from advocates who say it is better to be safe than sorry. He has signed dozens of bills firming up abortion access in recent years, but some of his plans have proved to be more flash than substance. A temporary law allowing doctors licensed in Arizona to provide abortions in California, for example, expired without any doctors using it.
“He makes the big pronouncements, but he’s not a very good executor of those policies,” said Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher of Yuba City. “It’s kind of become his M.O., to make a big splash and then nothing really ever comes of it.”
Democrats, however, see the need to shore up abortion access given the uncertainty of Trump’s plans. A bill introduced this week aims to ensure availability of mifepristone and misoprostol — the commonly used two-step medication abortion process — even if the Trump administration attempts to interfere.
At issue is how antiabortion government officials could revive and interpret the Comstock Act, a federal law that once banned the mailing of “obscene” materials related to abortions.
While Trump has said he has no plans to ban abortion nationwide, he has repeatedly flip-flopped on the issue and taken credit for appointing conservative Supreme Court justices who reversed the federal right to abortion with their decision in the landmark Dobbs case.
Reproductive health advocates are worried that under his second term, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could limit access to abortion medication. To lead the FDA, Trump has tapped Dr. Marty Makary, who has echoed antiabortion messages on Fox News about fetal pain — something disputed by major medical organizations.
The California bill by Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento), a legislative newcomer and former Planned Parenthood attorney, aims to ensure that Californians continue to have access to medication abortion for the foreseeable future and protects “manufacturers, distributors, authorized healthcare providers and individuals” from any legal action for distributing or administering the pills.
“There are emerging threats to the availability of mifepristone and misoprostol, and California may not be able to guarantee a continued supply,” the bill states. “Previously, Governor Newsom implemented a plan to stockpile doses of misoprostol. While this effort was successful, the Legislature finds that the state needs to renew its stockpile to ensure that Californians can continue to exercise their constitutional rights.”
Last year, Newsom rushed to stockpile hundreds of thousands of abortion pills after a Texas judge ruled against the authorization of the medication.
“We will not cave to extremists who are trying to outlaw these critical abortion services. Medication abortion remains legal in California,” Newsom said then.
But, facing expiration dates, the state released the stockpile to the public before the U.S. Supreme Court decision that rejected the Texas court’s ruling.
In Washington, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee chose to hold on to a similar stockpile in case Trump was elected again.
A spokesperson for Newsom said California “remains ready” to procure more pills if needed.
In another precautionary move last year, Newsom signed a law that allowed abortion providers in Arizona to temporarily practice in California. The action came after the Arizona Supreme Court reinstated an 1800s law that essentially banned all abortions.
No Arizona providers ended up using the program, which expired Dec. 1, according to the California Department of Consumer Affairs. Concerns settled in Arizona after Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill that repealed the court decision, and voters last month passed a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to abortion.
The California legislation “was designed to serve as a swift stop gap measure to preserve continued access to abortion care, if necessary, during this very precarious moment,” California Department of Consumer Affairs spokesperson Monica Vargas said in an email when The Times asked for data about the program’s use.
Newsom also signed a law last year that allowed medical residents from states with “hostile” laws to get abortion training in California. The state does not require the California Medical Board to track whether that program is being used as intended, a spokesperson said.
For Republican critics like Gallagher, those programs are instances of “political theater” meant more to draw attention to an issue than provide substantive policy. Newsom this week called a special legislative session in Sacramento to prepare for legal combat with Trump on issues such as abortion and immigration — a move heralded by liberals as smart preparation for an unpredictable president and criticized by conservatives as unnecessary panic.
“In California, abortion is constitutionally protected, and you have a president-elect who has said very clearly he will not support any national abortion ban,” Gallagher said. “This perceived threat that they’re trying to make into a political volley … it’s just Newsom drawing attention to himself.”
Some abortion advocates said that they’d rather have a nimble governor like Newsom and be cautious even if the emergency plans don’t always pan out.
“Now more than ever is the time for innovative policy solutions,” said Shannon Olivieri Hovis, a spokesperson for Essential Health Access. “And inevitably, it is going to be the case that not all solutions we put forth will be equally effective.”
Other bills introduced this week seeking to fill California’s reproductive health access gaps include a proposal to financially penalize cities and counties that block the building of abortion clinics, as has happened in Beverly Hills and Fontana.
Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) introduced a package of bills that would ensure hospitals enforce laws that require emergency rooms to provide abortion care; make it easier for Medi-Cal recipients to get birth control; and prevent birthing centers from closing.
About 40% of California counties don’t have abortion clinics, including rural areas where transportation can be a hurdle. In September, the state sued a Humboldt County Catholic hospital after a patient said she was denied an emergency abortion even as she feared for her life because of miscarriage risks.
“We have to be absolutely clear-eyed about the political and social moment we’re in right now … when we have a proven misogynist as a president,” said Mia Bonta, who is married to the attorney general, referring to Trump’s sexual abuse allegations and “your body, my choice” refrains that surged after his election.
“I think while California has done an amazing job, we still have a lot of work to do to shore up the infrastructure of support for people who are seeking healthcare and abortion access and protection of our reproductive and sexual freedoms.”
Politics
'Gov't knows best': Biden admin breaks Obama record for filling Federal Register with most regulations
President Biden’s administration has filled up the Federal Register with more pages of regulations than any other president in history, breaking President Barack Obama’s record.
As of last week, on Dec. 3, the Biden administration set a new federal record for the most Federal Register pages filled in a single year – 96,088. The number puts the administration on pace to fill more than 100,000 pages by the end of its term.
The record was previously held by Obama, who, in the final year of his second term, filled 95,894 pages.
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The Federal Register, which is published by the National Archives and Records Administration and overseen by the Office of the Federal Register, is a daily publication of new and amended federal regulations.
“Federal Register page counts are a highly imperfect gauge of regulatory burden. Biden’s milestone, though, still underscores the expanding scope of federal intervention,” said Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., fellow at the Washington-based nonprofit the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “The record-setting 2024 Federal Register provides a stark reminder of the scale of the regulatory state, and it ain’t even done yet.”
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During the final year of President-elect Trump’s first term in office, the Federal Register saw its fourth-largest number of pages filled. However, Crews said that number was likely inflated by efforts to eliminate rules that require agencies to issue new ones, as well as emergency COVID-19 pandemic measures. Meanwhile, during Trump’s first year in office, 2017, there were fewer pages added to the Federal Register than anyone since Bill Clinton in 1993, Crews pointed out.
Shortly after entering the Oval Office in 2017, Trump issued Executive Order 13771, which initiated a new federal rulemaking process requiring that for every single regulation added by the Trump administration, two must be taken away. The result of this was net cost savings throughout Trump’s first term, Crews said.
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Trump has signaled that he will expand his deregulation efforts during his second term, pledging to erase 10 regulations for every new one added.
Machalagh Carr, director of the Center for Legal Action at the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce, told Fox News Digital that with the incoming Trump administration “a new day is dawning and help is on the way.”
“For the last four years, [the Biden administration] has done their very best to strangle American free enterprise with a blizzard of unworkable regulations and mandates,” Carr said. “The political appointees calling the shots in the Biden administration have a hostile view of the innovators and companies that power our economy and believe that government knows best.”
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for both Biden and Trump, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Politics
Will Trump move to prosecute incoming California Sen. Schiff for investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot?
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that members of Congress who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection should be imprisoned.
“Honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump said of elected officials who led the investigation, speaking in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
One of those investigators, former Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), is slated to be sworn in Monday as California’s junior U.S. senator. Schiff served on the Jan. 6 committee and led the first impeachment trial of Trump.
Trump said Sunday he would not direct his administration to pursue such prosecutions and would leave the decision up to Pam Bondi, his pick for attorney general.
He also said he would “most likely” pardon his supporters who were convicted in the riot.
President Biden is considering whether to issue preemptive pardons to protect potential targets of revenge prosecution, including Schiff.
In a Sunday post on X accompanied by a clip of the interview, Schiff wrote: “Prosecuting the truth-tellers. Pardoning perpetrators of political violence. That’s not what democracies do. That’s what dictators do.”
Schiff won the election to replace outgoing Sen. Laphonza Butler, who was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to temporarily fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein after Feinstein’s death in September 2023.
He gained national prominence during Trump’s first term, leading multiple investigations into Trump and his allies.
In a letter to Newsom on Sunday announcing his formal resignation from the House, Schiff wrote that it was his honor to represent the people of California’s 30th Congressional District for the last 24 years.
“I look forward to representing all of the people of California, and doing my utmost to make sure that our state continues to provide opportunity, creativity, innovation, and a wonderful quality of life for generations to come,” he wrote.
Times staff writer Kevin Rector and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Politics
Democrat Ritchie Torres' torrent of attacks against own party fuels primary showdown buzz in New York
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., is considering a run for New York governor – and he’s raising his national profile with a tidal wave of criticism against leaders in his own party.
Torres has been vocally opposed to the blue stronghold’s progressive criminal justice policies and has criticized how Gov. Kathy Hochul has managed the Empire State, raising eyebrows about a potentially bruising primary in 2026.
“Hochul has a history of coded stereotyping, falsely claiming that young black Bronxites have never heard of the word ‘computer.’ She knows as much about me and communities of color as she knows about governing effectively. Absolutely nothing,” he wrote on X last week.
He was also one of the first Democrats to come out and blame the progressive left for Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President-elect Trump, saying at the time, “Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party.”
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When reached for comment, Torres’ spokesperson told Fox News Digital that he is weighing a gubernatorial bid “and plans to make a final decision by mid-2025.”
The congressman himself gave insight into his thinking when he recently went after New York City Mayor Eric Adams for employing a staffer who had been accused of ripping down posters of Israelis held hostage by Hamas.
“If I were at the helm of NYS or NYC government, antisemites need not apply. Tearing down posters of the hostages is completely unacceptable and would not be tolerated,” Torres wrote on social media.
In late November, he accused both Adams and Hochul of being “complicit” in a stabbing spree that left three New Yorkers dead.
That same month, he lambasted New York’s policies as bad for business.
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“There are regulations in place that make it impossible to do business… and have made it impossible to build,” Torres said during a Citizens Budget Commission meeting, according to the New York Post.
Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., who chaired the New York State Republican Party for over a decade, said it was not shocking to see Torres attacking Hochul while mulling his own gubernatorial bid.
“Richie Torres is vocalizing many of the same criticisms Republicans have raised about the dysfunction in Albany. So it’s not surprising that she’s facing a challenge from her own party,” Langworthy said.
However, he dismissed Torres’ critiques of progressivism as “posturing in the face of Hochul’s failures and the undeniable success” of Trump’s platform.
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Torres had been a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) until earlier this year, when he left over disagreements about Israel.
When asked about Torres’ criticism, Hochul said at a recent press conference that she was “a little busy” doing her job.
“Those who have government jobs who aren’t focused on their jobs, and are focused on an election almost two years off, I would think their constituents would have a problem with that,” she said.
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