Newsom plays silly abortion politics

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) no doubt wants to become President someday. Perhaps he wants to stand in for Joe Biden should the Democratic National Committee tell him to decline the nomination. Newsom knows that abortion is the one issue that might galvanize the Democratic base to vote when they otherwise wouldn’t. Naturally he would look for any opportunity to “ding” Republicans on abortion. Why, then, would his staff show such ignorance as to recommend singling out a State (Alabama) that has no border with an abortion tourist trap State? That is what Newsom has just done – and he has only brought ridicule upon himself. He richly deserves that – because now he is on the side of corrupting a minor’s morals, interfering with the parent-child relationship, and a whole host of offenses against a moral order at least half the country still supports.

Newsom and his silly ads

Gavin Newsom bought a domain – RightToTravel.org – to host his ads and start a petition drive. The domain actually redirects to a landing page on Gavin Newsom’s own Web site. The site refers to an organization called the Campaign for Democracy and has a petition signature form. That form asks for first and last names, email address, and ZIP Code. But the disclaimer about consent to receive campaign mail refers to a provision for a telephone number.

The sloppiness of this landing page mirrors the sloppiness of the advertisement that by now has gone viral. Two days ago Gov. Newsom dropped the ad on his own X account.

The landing page holds an embed of another ad, which YouTube hosts, depicting a woman in a hospital bed. This ad, titled Hostage, harps on Tennessee’s decision not to allow an exception for rape or incest.

The landing-page text refers to three bills allegedly pending in Tennessee, Oklahoma and Alabama, which, they say, would:

ban minors from traveling out of state to get an abortion without parental consent – no matter if it’s a case of incest or if there is abuse in the family.

Note, for what it’s worth, that the word rape does not appear in the text. Before the exhortation to sign the petition, it speaks of a “right to travel … guaranteed by the 4^th Amendment.”

Details of the ads

Herewith a plot synopsis of the first ad, which highlights interstate travel. A car rolls down a road past a sign that reads STATE LINE, 1 MILE. Inside, one young woman, a blonde, is driving; another, a brunette, looks out the rear window. Then she turns to the driver and says,

We’re almost there. You’re gonna make it.

Suddenly they hear a police siren behind them. Sure enough, a highway patrol car is pursuing them, lights flashing. As the driver gasps – and prepares to pull over and stop – a woman’s contralto voice narrates:

Trump Republicans want to criminalize young Alabama women who travel for reproductive care.

With both cars stopped, a State trooper gets out of his Ford Explorer® cruiser and approaches the terrified blonde driver. Speaking in an exaggerated Southern twang straight out of The Dukes of Hazzard, he sniggers,

Miss, I’m gonna need you to step out of the vehicle…

And here he holds up a sample tube by the specimen-introduction end, contaminating it – but who cares about medical accuracy? He continues,

… and take a pregnancy test.

In the very next scene the trooper is handcuffing the young woman behind her back. The voice-over narrator continues,

Stop them by taking action at RightToTravel.org.

Then she adds, rapid-fire, in the tone voice-over narrators use to quote legal disclaimers,

Campaign for Democracy Group is responsible for the content of this advertising.

The second ad is almost as bad. A young woman wakes up in a hospital bed, to a background of instrument beeps and voice pages. On the tray before her are the parts of a rape evidence kit. Then she realizes she is handcuffed to the side rails! “Help!” she cries – and no one answers. This time a lilting voice-over narrator says,

Trump Republicans want to criminalize young women who travel for the reproductive care they need. Don’t let them hold Tennessee women hostage. Take action at RightToTravel.org.

Plus the same disclaimer.

Reactions

The “Hostage” ad received about a 50/50 mix of raves (positive) and rants (negative). One comment picked up on laughter in the background, five seconds in, over the doctor’s voice page. Obviously whoever staged this scene knew this was not a serious depiction of a remotely real event. So they giggled – and the post-production crew didn’t even notice. Sloppy – like that landing page. The comments also referred to Google blocking the video in its search algorithms, and mentioned one Jessica Valenti. She is a feminist writer specializing in abortion – how to obtain one, laws in each State, and everything possible to promote it. That half the victims of abortion are female, doesn’t seem to register in her mind.

The reaction to Gavin Newsom’s post of his Alabama fugitive ad consisted of rants – almost exclusively. Some reminded Newsom of how many people are fleeing his State, with its unaffordable housing and rampant crime. Others highlighted his legislative program aiming at gun confiscation (and running into injunctions proceeding from New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. In fact Newsom has called for an Article V Convention to propose repeal of Amendment II in all but name.) Still others pointed out the absurdity of the vignette which the ad depicts.

Laughter is fine – but these ads might fool enough women into believing such scenarios – involving them – might take place. Which is why CNAV chooses to address them.

Newsom and his theater of the absurd

Of the Tennessee “Hostage” video, the less said the better. No hospital will ever be the scene of the kind of bondage eroticum that video depicts.

The Alabama ad is more absurd. First, look at the NBC Abortion Map. Of the three States Newsom names, every State that borders Alabama restricts or bans abortion. Florida has a 15-week ban, Georgia a 6-week ban, Tennessee allows an affirmative defense that the mother’s life was in danger – and Mississippi in fact has a rape/incest exception. So that breathless run for the State line from Alabama would not be realistic at all. From Tennessee (into Virginia) and Oklahoma (into Kansas, Colorado, or New Mexico), maybe. But not from Alabama. The only place where such an apprehension might be remotely realistic, is an airport.

Second, no State trooper is going to develop a “profile” of women who “look under age” and are driving with scared looks on their faces. Such “profiling” of drivers might never be probable cause to stop a young woman driver. And in any case, any collection of bodily fluids today requires a search warrant. Amendment IV doesn’t necessarily protect a “right to travel.” But that hypothetical pregnancy test, without an authorizing warrant, would violate the driver’s security of her person. That, of course, does involve Amendment IV. (To say nothing of the smirking trooper holding the pregnancy-test tube at the wrong end, thus rendering any result meaningless.)

The actual laws under consideration

Newsom admits, on the landing page, the real issue: laws criminalizing the trafficking of under-age women from States where abortion is illegal, into States where abortion is legal. Here, then, is the governor’s position: that a minor ought to be allowed to travel to an abortion tourist trap State to get an abortion without the consent, or even the knowledge, of her parents. Then, of course, the political left wants to emancipate all minors. This same movement wants to offer Doctor Moreau-like “transitioning” of minors.

Furthermore, let’s imagine this scene playing out, not in Alabama, nor even in Tennessee or Oklahoma, but in Idaho. Idaho already has a new anti-trafficking law to protect its minor children. Gov. Brad Little (R-Idaho) signed it into law last year. Gov. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) threatened to make a Constitutional crisis out of the first violation of this law to involve anyone trying to get an under-age girl out of Idaho and into Washington State. Inslee even half-boasted of doctors leaving Idaho for Washington to continue their abortion practices. And unlike Alabama, Idaho is surrounded on nearly all sides by abortion tourist-trap States: Montana, Washington, Oregon, and (for the moment) Wyoming.

Re-imagining

So let us re-imagine the State Line scenario as it would actually play out. A standard-sized car heads for the Idaho-Washington State line. This car is using a relative “back road”: Highway 53 north of Post Falls, next to a double railroad track. But this time the young woman driver has a middle-aged female companion. She glances out the rear window, then turns to the driver and says, in an ice-cold voice,

You’re almost home. Don’t blow it now. Just. Stay. Calm.

Suddenly they hear the broop-broop-broop of a police siren. Ice Queen glances back to see the Idaho State Police cruiser, lights flashing, pursuing them. Blurting out a blistering scatological obscenity, she says,

We’re too close to the State Line. They’ll never catch us. Floor it.

The girl hesitates, and that makes Ice Queen furious:

Are you going to let some NASCAR wannabe stop you when you are this close? FLOOR IT!!!

So she floors it. But then she has to stop – because as she passes North High Prairie Road, she sees a row of ISP cruisers, lights flashing, lined up at the turnoff to the now-closed Red Canoe Farms, blocking the highway in both directions.

She stops. And then a car that the girl recognizes instantly, pulls out of that Red Canoe Farms driveway. It stops – and out step a man and a woman, at the sight of whom she breaks down and cries.

The woman speaks:

Jennie, honey, it’ll be all right. Please don’t do this. You know you’re always welcome, and the baby, too. No problem is too much for us. We’re family.

“Jennifer” opens the door – and stops cold. Ice Queen has pulled out her handgun – for which she has a permit in Washington State, of course.

Stop right there, you little b*tch, or I’ll kill you.

But someone raps on the front-door window. Ice Queen turns – and Jennifer dives and rolls out of the car. Then a man’s voice barks,

Drop that weapon right now and come out with your hands up.

Who really gets arrested

The scene ends with Jennifer in the loving arms of her mother – and Ice Queen in handcuffs. For Ice Queen is an experienced escort, specializing in the trafficking of minor girls from Idaho to Washington State. She would also take advantage of Idaho’s “Constitutional Carry” law and Washington State’s “shall-issue” law. But of course neither Gov. Inslee nor Gov. Newsom would care to admit that anyone but a law-enforcement officer would have any legitimate use for a handgun.

Remember: this is CNAV’s idea for how such a scene would play out. It is not an actual campaign ad.

More to the point, Idaho’s law punishes the adult responsible for the trafficking and not the minor girl. Logically, the proposed laws in Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee would do the same.

The scene might play out with considerably less drama in any Alabama airport. For one thing, the Transportation Security Administration allows no guns in the Secure Area that includes the flight gates. For another, the parents, and the Alabama Police, would have plenty of time to wait immediately past the screening checkpoint. As before, the adult would face arrest, not the minor girl. Perhaps neither Planned Parenthood nor any other activist group would care to risk trafficking girls through an airport. That leaves Tennessee and Oklahoma to decide how they’re going to stop trafficking into Virginia, Kansas, Colorado, or New Mexico.

What does Newsom gain?

As it turns out, Gavin Newsom gains nothing, and in fact loses. The reaction to his Alabama State Line video shows this. Users ridiculed his willful ignorance of the proposed laws, and of basic State Police procedure, especially regarding search and seizure. They also pointed out that people are fleeing California’s taxes, crime and housing costs. If anyone doubts this, let them try the U-Haul Truck Finder, between California and any “Red” State. (One user pointed out California’s “exit tax law,” that taxes unrealized capital gains in a Californian’s last tax return.)

No one has yet mentioned that Newsom’s ad depicts two under-age girls crossing a State line without a chaperon. Sadly, that is still legal, even in Idaho. What’s illegal in Idaho is for an adult to make that travel happen.

Ironically, the governor has created an opportunity for conservatives to show a “caring side,” by depicting a story of successful minor trafficking. Clearly he has shown that he would see no abortion unperformed. In fact he is on record as welcoming abortion tourism – presumably regardless of maternal age. For that matter, so has Gov. Inslee of Washington State. Ridiculous scenarios aside, those two seem to be spoiling for a Constitutional crisis. Each of them should be careful what he wishes for.