San Francisco Blacklists 22 States with 'Restrictive Abortion Laws'
City officials in San Francisco have blacklisted 22 states that have “restrictive abortion laws,” prohibiting city employees from traveling to and making business deals with companies in those states.
All 22 of the states ban abortion after between 13 and 24 weeks of pregnancy, Fox News reported.
Vallie Brown, a city supervisor, introduced legislation over the summer to ban city-funded travel to and business deals with the blacklisted states, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“It’s an assault on women and women’s reproductive rights. And it’s also an economic hit on women: If you can’t decide when to start a family, it hits you economically,” Brown said.
Mayor London Breed characterized the 22 states as violating the Constitution with their abortion-restricting laws.
“Every day in this country, women’s reproductive rights are threatened, and we have to fight back. Just as we restricted spending with states that have laws that discriminate against LGBTQ people, we are standing up against states that put women’s health at risk and that are actively working to limit reproductive freedoms,” Breed said in a statement, according to Fox.
“By limiting travel and contracting with certain states, we are keeping our city funding out of the hands of states that disregard the constitutional right to abortion.”
The states on San Francisco’s blacklist are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Nine of those states had already been blacklisted by the city because of LGBT laws.
City officials hope that the new ban will convince residents of the blacklisted states to elect new lawmakers.
“Let’s empower them. Let’s tell them, ‘You have allies. You can change your elected officials that target women,'” Brown said, according to the Chronicle.
Breed’s office expressed optimism that if the city’s ban were to inspire other jurisdictions to impose similar restrictions, the 22 blacklisted states may suffer economically.
“Although tax revenue from San Francisco alone may not be sufficient to encourage states to rethink their laws, if other cities and states follow San Francisco’s lead, the financial pressure might be enough to prompt policy changes,” Breed’s office said, according to Fox News.
The blacklist is not the only recent city measure that may not sit well with conservatives.
In September, the city board of supervisors declared the National Rifle Association a “domestic terrorist organization.”
The San Francisco blacklist policy goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020. The ban will not apply to existing city contracts with businesses in blacklisted states that last beyond 2020.
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