[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Constitutional law, science and medicine have dramatically changed since Ronald Reagan was Governor of California. But a major law involving fundamental reproductive rights remains frozen in time. California’s Therapeutic Abortion Act appears in our statute books exactly as Governor Reagan signed it in 1967.

A progressive measure 35 years ago, the Therapeutic Abortion Act now is archaic, confusing, and unconstitutional. A lawyer researching the Health and Safety Code today would read that abortion is legal only if a hospital committee determines that the pregnancy will gravely impair a woman’s physical or mental health or a District Attorney concludes that the pregnancy probably resulted from rape or incest. Health and Safety Code Sections 123405, 123407.

[nyconse]

Ok, I can see why he did this. Reagan was very compassionate. He wanted to help victims of rape and incest. Of course if I know doctors, they immediately used this law to perform abortion using the "mental" paragraph: a woman who couldn't get an abortion would be destroyed emotionally. Sad-abortion caused anguish-at least for the people I know that have had one.

[Torie]

There were a huge number of abortions performed in California under the Act signed by Reagan pre Roe v Wade. That data combined with NY, and two other states, was used by some academics (one from Stanford) to write a paper arguing that abortion reduces crime rates. I posted that article a couple of years ago on this very site.