Forty-one years after the historic Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, politicians across the nation are falling all over themselves to take away a woman's right to decide when and whether to have a child.
For the worst restrictions on abortion last year, it's hard to pick a winner: North Dakota's six-week abortion ban; Arkansas's 12-week ban; Texas's clinic restrictions forcing women to travel upwards of 150 miles for abortion care; laws like Kansas's or South Dakota's that expand waiting periods, make women have medically unnecessary ultrasounds or force doctors to provide misinformation to women before they are allowed to decide to have an abortion; or Michigan's ban against private health coverage for abortion care. And the prize for most ignorant statement about rape, abortion and pregnancy is widely shared. For a (depressing) summary of the most radical restrictions enacted last year, see here and here.
The ACLU and other organizations have worked hard to get courts to temporarily block many of these laws but some have already gone into effect. It's a long road ahead to get them off the books.
In the meantime, I live and work in the magical land of California, which last year, had the notable distinction of being the only state in the nation to buck this ugly trend, stand up for women and actually expand a woman's access to abortion. Our new law grants a woman wider access to early abortion care from local providers whom she already knows and trusts. The law authorizes specially trained nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants to provide abortion services during the first trimester. Before the law, 52 percent of California counties did not have an accessible abortion provider.
We also enacted a landmark privacy law that protects the personal and sensitive health information of people covered under another person's health insurance. California's strong medical privacy laws didn't mean much in practice for people like those under 26 who stay on their parent's insurance (thanks, Affordable Care Act) or people on a spouse or partner's insurance because insurance companies would automatically send an explanation of benefits -- all the care someone got -- to the policy holder. Our new law fixed that loophole so now sensitive services like reproductive health care, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, mental health care, drug/alcohol treatment and domestic violence-related care are presumptively not shared on statements to the policy holder.
But even in California, we have more work to do. This year, we'll be working hard to:
• Implement our abortion access and privacy legislative victories. • Pass a bill to repeal an outdated law that punishes low-income mothers in their decision to have a child, inserts the government into the private reproductive decisions of low-income families and deprives newborns of basic government aid for food, clothing and shelter. • Improve health care for incarcerated women and stop practices that coerce an incarcerated woman's reproductive decisions. • Ensure religion is not used to restrict necessary health care, particularly given the rise in religious hospital mergers nationally and here in California, making sure nothing like what happened to Tamesha Means ever happens to a woman in California. • Enforce the right to comprehensive sex education in places like the Central Valley and beyond, to ensure young people have the information and skills they need to make healthy decisions about sex and relationships. • Demand the right of working parents to get paid sick days so that they can take time off to care for a sick child without fear of losing a paycheck and educate working parents about their right to paid family leave to care for a newborn or sick relative. True reproductive freedom requires the ability to exercise both the right not to have children and the right to have children and be able to care for them. Yet, in California, approximately forty percent of the private workforce do not get paid sick days and more than half of California workers eligible for the paid family leave program don't know it exists or use it.
So happy anniversary, Roe. We'll keep the momentum going, at least in California.
Cross-posted from the Huffington Post. Melissa Goodman is senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. Follow her: @mg718

Nine years ago, as part of the landmark Williams settlement, the state promised school districts $800 million to fund the Emergency Repair Program (ERP), established to help schools address facility conditions that pose urgent threats to students’ health and safety.
As of today, the state has failed to honor that commitment. In fact, the state hasn’t even come close, falling short by $462 million. For each of the last five years, the state has made a net contribution of $0 to the ERP. As a result, schools have been languishing in the funding queue.

Most people probably don’t think “state budget” and “exciting” belong in the same sentence. But for anyone who cares about California students, there is exciting news tucked in the governor’s recent 2014-15 budget proposal.
On Friday, the governor proposed that the state finally take a significant step forward by including $188.1 million for the ERP in his budget. It is critical that the legislature embrace this proposal because the funds are direly needed.
In a 2013 ACLU SoCal report, administrators across California made abundantly clear that a school facilities crisis is imminent unless the legislature funds the ERP. And last week, the Sacramento Bee revealed that schools in Twin Rivers Unified School District are suffering from precisely the sort of facilities deficiencies that the ERP was meant to address, as hundreds of students sat in freezing classrooms without working heat.
With improving economic conditions and urgent health and safety needs in public schools going unaddressed throughout the state, there is no excuse for further delay. We commend Governor Brown for his leadership and look forward to working with him, the legislature and other stakeholders to secure these funds and deliver the Williams promise of equal educational opportunity for all.
David Sapp is staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.