At press time Tuesday, a Kings County judge was set to weigh whether to reopen the case of Adora Perez, who has served nearly four years of an 11-year prison sentence for “manslaughter of a fetus” — the stillborn baby she delivered minutes after testing positive for methamphetamine.
The case has pitted a popular rural prosecutor against Attorney General Rob Bonta, who recently warned law enforcement officials not to file charges against mothers who miscarry or deliver a stillbirth.
The case has also alarmed abortion rights advocates, who fear it could open the door to criminally prosecuting women who decide to terminate their pregnancies, CalMatters’ Nigel Duara reports.
- Samantha Lee, staff attorney at National Advocates for Pregnant Women: “With the possibility that Roe (v. Wade) might fall this year, letting this stand could increase these types of prosecutions.”
The high-stakes hearing comes a few days after Gov. Gavin Newsom made good on his promise to introduce a gun control bill modeled on Texas’ controversial abortion ban — which the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block — allowing private citizens to sue abortion clinics or anyone who “aids or abets” the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy.
- On Friday, Newsom, Bonta and Democratic state lawmakers unveiled four gun control proposals that would: (1) allow private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, transports, imports into California or sells illegal assault weapons, .50 BMG rifles, ghost guns or ghost gun kits; (2) permit individuals and the state attorney general to sue firearm manufacturers and sellers for harm caused by their products; (3) tighten restrictions on ghost guns; and (4) ban the marketing of some weapons to children.
- Newsom said of the first bill: “There is no principled way the U.S. Supreme Court can’t uphold this law. It is quite literally modeled after the law they just upheld in Texas.”
Republican lawmakers denounced Newsom’s proposal as a “publicity stunt.”
- Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher of Yuba City: “CA already has the strictest gun laws in the nation, and yet we have a surge in violent crime. The problem is criminals with no accountability. … Newsom is desperate to talk about anything but his utter failure to keep our streets safe.”
- In another blow to Newsom, a Friday analysis from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found that the governor’s public safety budget proposal “lacks clear objectives for achieving the intended public safety goals.”
Still, it seems Democratic officials are increasingly concerned about polls showing voter dissatisfaction with crime and homelessness. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón — one of the nation’s most progressive prosecutors — backtracked on some signature policies Friday, allowing his office to pursue trying some juveniles as adults and seek life sentences against defendants in certain cases.
And on Sunday, Gascón said his office may have pursued too short of a sentence for a transgender woman who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl.
