Gov. Gavin Newsom is posting billboards in some of the U.S. states with the most restrictive abortion bans, directing people who may need the medical procedure to a new state website about how to access care in California.
The billboards launched on Thursday, Newsom announced, and are now running in Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas, South Carolina, South Dakota and Oklahoma.
The seven states were chosen because they "are among the most restrictive in the country to abortion care," according to a statement from Newsom's reelection campaign, which paid for the billboards.
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The messages on the billboards directly address the people in those states affected by restrictive abortion laws.
"Texas doesn't own your body. You do," reads the billboard that will appear in Texas. "Learn more at abortion.CA.gov."
The text appears next to a photo of a woman in a long white dress with her hands cuffed together behind her back.
"Need an abortion? California is ready to help," reads the billboard that will appear in Mississippi and Oklahoma. The same directive for the California webpage also appears, along with bible verse Mark 12:31: "Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these."
The text on that billboard appears next to a photo of a white woman with blonde hair, sitting curled up with her arms around her knees and a worried expression on her face.
The website on the billboards, abortion.ca.gov, was launched Tuesday. The publicly funded website promotes the state's abortion services, listing clinics, linking to financial help for travel and lodging and letting teenagers in other states know they don't need their parents' permission to get an abortion in the state.
In Newsom's tweets announcing the billboards that direct people to the website, he called states with laws restricting or banning abortion "anti-freedom states," and addressed people in need of medical care in those states to say "CA will defend your right to make decisions about your own health."
He added a photo of each of the seven state billboards to the Twitter thread, directly tagging the governor of each state.
Newsom announced the website the same day Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina introduced a bill that would ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Graham portrayed his bill as a “responsible alternative” to what he says are the permissive laws favored by Democrats.
