Press Release California
Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice California Endorses Malia Cohen for California State Controller
For Immediate Release: Thursday, October 28, 2021
Contact: [email protected]
Sacramento — NARAL Pro-Choice California today announced its endorsement of Malia Cohen in her bid for California state controller, seeking to fill the vacancy created by the departure of Controller Betty Yee who terms out in 2022. Cohen currently serves on the California State Board of Equalization and is the former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
NARAL Pro-Choice California Director Shannon Olivieri Hovis said:
“NARAL Pro-Choice California is proud to endorse Malia Cohen, a true leader for reproductive freedom, for state controller on behalf of our nearly 300,000 members statewide. Cohen has a long track record of fighting for reproductive freedom, including decisively taking action against harmful disinformation about reproductive healthcare being spread by fake health centers in San Francisco. NARAL is proud to stand with Cohen as she continues to fight to protect and expand abortion access at a time when it is under attack like never before.”
Malia Cohen, NARAL Pro-Choice California’s endorsed candidate for State Controller, said:
“I’m proud and honored to stand with NARAL in the battle to protect our fundamental right to reproductive choice. As State Controller, I pledge to strongly support funding to ensure access to safe health and reproductive services for all without fear or intimidation. California must never become another Texas!”
Cohen introduced an ordinance as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, backed by NARAL Pro-Choice California, to prohibit anti-choice fake health centers, sometimes called “crisis pregnancy centers”, from making false or misleading statements to the public about the services they offer. Cohen has focused much of her career on advancing the economic freedom of women, in particular women of color.
This endorsement comes as reproductive freedom is in peril like never before. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will hear oral arguments in two cases regarding Texas’ SB 8 on November 1, Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson and United States v. Texas. The Supreme Court deferred a decision about whether to block the law while litigation proceeds until after oral arguments, meaning that the vigilante-enforced abortion ban will remain in effect until at least November 1.
The U.S. Supreme Court will also soon hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. With an eye to the Court’s anti-choice supermajority, lawmakers hostile to reproductive freedom have ramped up their attacks on abortion access in hopes of ultimately overturning Roe. Anti-choice state lawmakers have already introduced, advanced, or passed more than 330 state bills attacking abortion access in 2021. This year, 106 restrictions on abortion access have been enacted at the state level, making it the worst year for abortion rights since Roe was decided.
Although California is a leader in reproductive freedom and healthcare innovation, 40% of its counties do not have an abortion provider, and nine counties do not have a single OB-GYN. These barriers to access disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; people with low incomes; and rural communities.
Earlier this week, NARAL Pro-Choice California announced its endorsement of statewide incumbents ahead of the 2022 general election: Governor Gavin Newsom, Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, Secretary of State Shirley Weber, Attorney General Rob Bonta, Treasurer Fiona Ma, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. NARAL Pro-Choice California will be making additional endorsements in the coming weeks.
###
For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, paid family leave, and protections from pregnancy discrimination—for every body. NARAL is powered by its more than 2.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.