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<\/p>\nSacramento, CA…As states across the country continue to impose archaic and dangerous laws to outlaw abortion and criminalize patients and providers, Governor Gavin Newsom today granted a posthumous pardon to Laura Miner, a courageous provider of reproductive health services in California from 1934 to 1948, and lifted up the state\u2019s continued work to expand and protect reproductive rights and health care access for all.<\/p>\n
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This is the Governor\u2019s second posthumous pardon.\u00a0In 2020<\/a>, he granted his first posthumous pardon to Bayard Rustin, a humanitarian and influential civil rights leader. To date, Governor Newsom has granted a total of 130 pardons, 123 commutations and 35 reprieves. Additional information on executive clemency can be found\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n Sacramento, CA…As states across the country continue to impose archaic and dangerous laws to outlaw abortion and criminalize patients and providers, Governor Gavin Newsom today granted a posthumous pardon to Laura Miner, a courageous provider of reproductive health services in California from 1934 to 1948, and lifted up the state\u2019s continued work to expand and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,16,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-law-enforcement","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/gavinsigning-400x250-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150465,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150464\/revisions\/150465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=150464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=150464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Laura Miner dedicated her career to providing safe and accessible elective abortions at a time when punitive restrictions forced women to seek unregulated and often medically risky abortions. She was respected in the medical community as a highly skilled practitioner and served patients in need on a sliding scale. In 1949, Miner was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for the felony crimes of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion.
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\u201cIn California, we\u2019re never going back to a time when women were forced to seek basic health care in back rooms and underground clinics,\u201d\u00a0said Governor Newsom. \u201cLaura Miner\u2019s story is a powerful reminder of the generations of people who fought for reproductive freedom in this country, and the risks that so many Americans now face in a post-Roe world. Miner paid a price for taking a stand, and today we\u2019re taking a step to right this injustice and reaffirm California\u2019s commitment to defending the hard-won progress made by countless advocates and health care providers over the decades.\u201d
A copy of the pardon certificate granted today can be found\u00a0here.<\/a>
\u201cThis pardon is a reaffirmation of California\u2019s commitment to uphold reproductive rights and to protect those who seek or provide abortion care,\u201d\u00a0said First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. \u201cAs a woman and a mother, I\u2019m so grateful for Laura Miner\u2019s courage and dedication to providing women safe reproductive care in the face of tremendous personal risk. Now, more than 70 years after Ms. Miner was unjustly convicted, we must channel her strength and resolve as we fight to protect and guarantee in the U.S. a woman\u2019s very basic right to make decisions about her own body and future.\u201d
\u201cLaura Miner was a hero ahead of her time who willingly traded her own freedom to save countless women \u2013 women who risked everything to make their own healthcare decisions and, in a very basic sense, choose their own future,\u201d\u00a0said Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego). \u201cLaura\u2019s bravery deserved to be commended, not prosecuted, and I\u2019m grateful that we have evolved enough to be able to pardon her today. Laura\u2019s story of subversive care eerily foreshadows what we may see as courts and statehouses across the country roll back our reproductive rights. We remember her, and the generations of women who had no option but to seek care in the shadows, as we continue the work to ensure that California is a beacon of reproductive justice and access for all.\u201d
California now protects and regulates safe reproductive health care for all, and the state continues to enact nation-leading laws and policies to make this essential care more affordable and accessible. With this act of clemency, Governor Newsom is acknowledging the inherent injustice of Miner\u2019s conviction and her important contributions to the people of California.
\u201cThank you Governor Newsom for not just taking steps to improve access to essential health care like abortion today, but righting the injustices towards providers in the past,\u201d\u00a0said Jodi Hicks, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.\u00a0\u201cThe action today is a stark reminder of the reality that now is before us in this post-Dobbs world and the risk providers take every day to make sure patients get the care they want and need. We are grateful for Governor Newsom\u2019s commitment to continue to move our state forward towards a more equitable and just future \u2013 one where people are able to get the care they want, when they want, and where they want, free from fear of legal persecution.\u201d
Following the overturning of\u00a0Roe v. Wade, Governor Newsom and the Legislature have taken action to advance California\u2019s leadership on reproductive freedom with new measures to further protect patients and providers from legal retaliation, assist women in other states seeking abortion care, and expand reproductive health care access and affordability:<\/p>\n\n
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