California now has what probably is the nation’s strongest law protecting women and abortion providers and clients from anti-reproductive-rights crime – Senate Bill 780 of 2001 by Senator Deborah Ortiz.
The Life Legal Defense Foundation opposed the bill in the Legislature and is suing to try to overturn it. But LLDF goes beyond legitimate lobbying and legal tactics. It also advocates filing reports with law-enforcement authorities falsely accusing abortion providers of anti-reproductive-rights crimes. SB 780 requires police to report anti-reproductive-rights crimes to the state attorney general. “This provision may also be the undoing of SB 780,” an LLDF memorandum states.
“Under California law, false advertising is a crime. How many abortion clinic clients are misled every day by representations that abortion is a safe procedure, safer than childbirth, and that there is no link between abortion and breast cancer? Each one of these is an ‘anti-reproductive-rights crime’ that should be reported to the appropriate authorities, including the attorney general’s office, along with documentation of the false advertising and a demand that the ‘persons suspected of committing these crimes’ be investigated,” LLDF states.
“Any other crimes committed by abortion providers against their patients, such as fraudulent billing practices, should also be reported,” the LLDF adds.
Only someone accustomed to distorting and lying could call such things “anti-reproductive-rights crimes.” California Penal Code Section 13776(a), which SB 780 enacted, defines "anti-reproductive-rights crime" as “a crime committed partly or wholly because the victim is a reproductive health services client, provider, or assistant, or a crime that is partly or wholly intended to intimidate the victim, any other person or entity, or any class of persons or entities from becoming or remaining a reproductive health services client, provider, or assistant.”
LLDF opposed SB 780 on the grounds that it would “hobble” California law enforcement. Now it urges its followers to flood the attorney general’s office with false reports. It appears the LLDF does not truly care about law enforcement, it only cares only with protecting anti-abortion criminals.
