WHEREAS, January 22, 2021, marks the 48th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) 410 U.S. 113, which affirmed that every person has the fundamental right to control their own reproductive decisions and that every person who becomes pregnant has the right to decide whether to continue that pregnancy or obtain an abortion; and

WHEREAS, The occasion is deserving of acknowledgment; and

WHEREAS, Roe v. Wade has been the cornerstone of reproductive freedom for all, allowing every person who can become pregnant in the United States the right to decide when, if, and with whom to have children, and how many children to have, and has helped facilitate equal economic and societal participation in the United States; and

WHEREAS, In the years prior to the Roe v. Wade decision, illegal abortion accounted for approximately 17 percent of all reported deaths attributable to pregnancy and childbirth, and many pregnant persons were severely injured as a result of “back alley” abortion procedures; and

WHEREAS, Interference with the right to choose whether to carry a pregnancy to term causes people to be forced into illegal and dangerous abortions, as they often were in the United States before the Roe v. Wade decision. Many people are forced to make these decisions today in countries where abortion is illegal and where the unsafe methods of illegal abortion lead to 13 percent of global maternal deaths annually, or eight maternal deaths every hour; and

WHEREAS, Roe v. Wade continues to protect the health and freedom of people who can become pregnant throughout the United States. National peer-reviewed studies show abortion is a safe medical procedure, increasingly provided through outpatient medication, that nearly one in four people who can become pregnant in the United States will access; and

WHEREAS, Roe v. Wade is believed to be in serious jeopardy of being overturned or further eroded due to President Donald J. Trump’s appointment of new justices to the United States Supreme Court who have a record of being hostile to the constitutional right to choose; and

WHEREAS, States are passing legislation that creates barriers to abortion that could be considered by the Supreme Court of the United States; and

WHEREAS, Providers of sexual and reproductive health care are still under serious, unrelenting attack for providing essential information and services, such as abortion, as evidenced by bomb threats, arson, and vandalism in California. Nationally, from 2018 to 2019 alone, death threats against abortion providers nearly doubled, incidents of clinic invasion doubled, and bomb threats nearly tripled; and

WHEREAS, The State of California stands in strong support of the fundamental right, as confirmed in Roe v. Wade, of every person who can become pregnant to make their own decisions regarding pregnancy and commits to boldly advance access to sexual and reproductive health care within our state; now, therefore, be it