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Dr. Simon Stampe hadn’t been working at Eureka’s St. Joseph Hospital for long before his medical training came into direct conflict with the religion-based anti-abortion policies of Providence Health and Services, the Catholic health care system that owns and operates the hospital. 

In a court declaration submitted as part of California’s recently filed lawsuit against St. Joseph Hospital, Dr. Stampe says he voiced concerns about the facility’s obstetrics policies to hospital leadership in July of last year and never received a substantive response.

The state’s suit, filed late last month, accuses the hospital’s Catholic owner/operators of endangering the life of local chiropractor Dr. Anna Nusslock by denying her emergency abortion care this past February. 

Dr. Nusslock’s water had broken when she was just 15 weeks pregnant with twins, and she arrived at St. Joseph hospital bleeding heavily and in severe pain. “Despite the immediate threat to her life and health, and despite the fact her pregnancy was no longer viable, Providence refused to treat her,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said in a press release.

Dr. Stampe is a family medicine physician with advanced training in high-risk and surgical obstetrics. Shortly after being hired by Open Door Community Health Centers in June of 2021, he applied for privileges at St. Joseph Hospital — a common arrangement that allows local doctors to work at multiple facilities.

As part of his orientation, medical staff at St. Joseph Hospital provided Dr. Stampe with documentation — he believes it was either a summary or an excerpt — on the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, a set of instructions issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. These directives often contradict accepted medical standards, especially in areas of reproductive health, according to physicians and other medical practitioners.

The hospital’s chaplain later underscored the inviolability of these rules when it comes to abortion, telling Dr. Stampe that “under no circumstance was I to terminate a pregnancy at Providence [St. Joseph] Hospital,” he says in his declaration.

That policy impacted one of his patients just a few months later when, like Nusslock, she presented with an emergency medical condition related to her pre-viable pregnancy. The accepted standard of care in such situations is to terminate the pregnancy, Dr. Stampe says, but leadership in St. Joseph’s perinatal department informed him that he was not allowed to do so while the fetus had still had cardiac activity and “the patient was not actively dying.”

Dr. Stampe was told that if he went against this rule, he would risk losing his privileges at St. Joseph. “It was never made clear to me how close the patient had to be to death before doctors could intervene under the policy,” he says in his declaration.

He consulted with senior physicians at St. Joseph on at least two other occasions, and they only affirmed the hospital’s rigid stance on the matter, he says. On July 17, 2023, Dr. Stampe met with hospital leadership, including regional and local ethics leaders, to bring forward his concerns about such situations — that is, patients presenting with preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) before the fetus is viable. 

Dr. Stampe says he was told only that they would think about his concerns and return with an answer at a later date. “Despite reminders to them, including a follow up e-mail, I never received a clear answer about this issue,” he says in his declaration. He’s aware of at least one other patient who arrived at St. Joseph Hospital’s emergency department with pre-viable PPROM only to get discharged without treatment, which caused her to suffer complications.

There have been numerous other cases like this, according to another declaration submitted as part of the lawsuit. Dr. Elizabeth Micks, the OBGYN who treated Anna Nusslock at Mad River Community Hospital, says that in the two years she has worked at Mad River she has personally treated two such cases.

“Specifically, these were pregnant women who initially sought care at Providence [St. Joseph] Hospital for an inevitable miscarriage,” Dr. Micks says in her statement. “In these cases, abortion care was necessary to preserve the patient’s health and potentially their life yet Providence [St. Joseph] Hospital refused to provide appropriate care due to the presence of fetal heart tones.”

Based on her own experience, Dr. Micks estimates that one or two women each year receive abortion care at Mad River after being refused such care at St. Joseph Hospital, needlessly endangering their lives.

“I believe Providence [St. Joseph] Hospital’s management falls below the standard of care and puts patients at risk of serious bodily injury or even death,” she says in her declaration.

Mad River Community Hospital’s Trillium Birth Center is scheduled to close next week, with management citing a declining volume of births in recent years. Its closure will leave St. Joseph Hospital as the lone remaining birthing center in Humboldt County.

Providence was initially given until last Friday to respond to the lawsuit, which was accompanied by a request for preliminary injunction to prevent St. Joseph Hospital violating state laws by refusing to treat anyone and everyone with an emergency medical condition. But since Dr. Stampe’s declaration was submitted after the lawsuit, Providence now has until Oct. 28 to submit its response.

A hearing on the motion for preliminary injunction has been delayed from Oct. 25 to Nov. 15.

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Press release from the Humboldt County Drug Task Force:

On October 22, 2024, Humboldt County Drug Task Force (HCDTF) Agents with assistance from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) conducted a traffic top on a vehicle registered to Diana Reeves of Eureka, CA. HCSO Deputy Hwang and her K9 partner Uno conducted an open-air sniff on the vehicle. K9 Uno alerted to the vehicle indicating drugs were present.  

Inside the vehicle, HCDTF Agents located Diana Reeves, over two pounds of methamphetamine and a digital scale. 

Diana Reeves was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where she was booked on the following charges:

• HS11378- Possession of a Controlled Substance
• HS11379(A)- Transportation of a Controlled Substances for Sales

Anyone with information related to this investigation or other narcotics related crimes is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Drug Task Force at 707-267-9976.

In a major step toward California’s first effort to bury climate-warming gases underground, Kern County’s Board of Supervisors on Monday unanimously approved a project on a sprawling oil and gas field.

The project by California Resources Corp., the state’s largest producer of oil and gas, will capture millions of tons of carbon dioxide and inject it into the ground in the western San Joaquin Valley south of Buttonwillow.

The Carbon Terra Vault project is part of a broader bid by the oil and gas industry to remain viable in a state that is attempting to decarbonize. Although the company still faces additional steps, the county approval is a key development that advances the project.

The Newsom administration has endorsed carbon capture and sequestration technology as critical to California’s efforts to tackle climate change — it plays a major role in the administration’s action plan for slashing greenhouse gases over the next 20 years.

At a packed four-hour meeting in Bakersfield Monday, community members and environmental justice advocates voiced concerns about air pollution from the project and the safety of injecting carbon dioxide underground, while oil industry representatives and local supporters said it would give Kern County an economic boost.

“Carbon Terra Vault will incentivize new polluting infrastructure throughout Kern County,” said Ileana Navarro, a community organizer with the Central California Environmental Justice Network, based in Bakersfield. “This will not clean our air.”

Francisco Leon, CEO of California Resources Corp., told county supervisors that the project would preserve high-paying jobs while reducing carbon emissions. He said the company is committed to investing in the community and preparing the region’s workers for careers in the emerging field of “carbon management,” including through a partnership with Kern Community College.

“When we talk about an energy transition, the jobs have to be just as good, they cannot be just one-for-one,” Leon said, speaking at the hearing. “The state of California wants an energy transition. This is how you do it, with projects that deliver on every front. We’re ready to go.”

Before construction can begin, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would have to give the project a final signoff. Earlier this year, the agency approved draft permits for the company to build four wells for injecting carbon dioxide into the ground, and the company is seeking two more. In addition, for the company to be eligible for state clean-fuel credits, the California Air Resources Board must certify it as eligible.

Construction would take about two years for the carbon capture plants and a year for the pipelines, according to the environmental impact report.

“The state of California wants an energy transition. This is how you do it, with projects that deliver on every front. We’re ready to go.”
— Francisco Leon, CEO of California Resources Corp.

Experts say the Kern County location is significant because the San Joaquin Valley is ideal for carbon storage. The EPA permits are the first in the nation to be issued for a depleted oil and gas field, according to the company.

As oil output has slowed in California, the oil and gas industry and labor unions say the technology could preserve jobs while ensuring that the industry captures and stores more greenhouse gases that it emits.

But environmental advocates opposed the project, saying that polluting fossil fuel industries need to go altogether as California transitions to an economy powered by renewable energy. They say the technology could prolong the life of oil and gas and that the project would emit air pollutants that could pose health risks to low-income communities in the valley.

County Supervisor Phillip Peters criticized the environmental groups. “I don’t see any projects from them that are creating jobs, that are doing anything to benefit the environment,” he said. Peters, who used to work in oilfields, added that “I was really surprised by this argument that this infrastructure for the oil industry is being purposely located in underserved communities…we usually site infrastructure equipment for the oil industry where there’s oil.”

“I’m not an apologist. I’m proud of our oil sector,” said Supervisor Jeff Flores. “It provides jobs, and I think it’s really a morally arrogant position to say that your jobs don’t matter.”

In a 4-0 vote, the county supervisors approved a zoning change and use permits to allow “permanent underground storage of up to 49.1 million tons of carbon dioxide” in two underground reservoirs on about 9,000 acres at its Elk Hills Oil and Gas Field, along with a pipeline and new facilities to capture it.

The carbon dioxide would be extracted from natural gas produced at the field before it is burned at the company’s power plant, which provides energy for Pacific Gas & Electric. Carbon also would be captured from a proposed hydrogen plant and a direct air capture project that would use fans and filters to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

California Resources Corp. plans to annually collect 1.46 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and inject it into the ground more than a mile deep into the Monterey Formation, a vast geological structure that has long been a key source of California’s oil.

Credit: John Osborn D’Agostino / CalMatters

During the years of construction, heavy equipment would emit smog-forming gases and fine particles, and when the plant is operating, some fugitive emissions would come from the carbon capture process, according to the environmental impact report. Those pollutants will be regulated by local air quality officials. The report also cautioned that the project could harm or disturb some protected plants and wildlife, including lizards, birds of prey, kit fox, so measures to avoid them are required.

The EPA will require the company to monitor the injection wells for a century to ensure that no groundwater is polluted. Initial examinations suggest there are no drinking water sources threatened by injecting carbon into the reservoir. But the project would use significant amounts of groundwater in a basin that already is over-pumped.

A coalition of environmental and environmental justice groups including the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and EarthJustice, called the plan “inadequate” under California environmental law. The groups said the the environmental report fails to take into account that fossil fuel activities would be extended in the area.

13 other carbon proposals pending in California

Carbon capture technology has existed since the 1970s and has been tried in other states and countries, often at coal-fired power plants, though those projects have been criticized as costly and complicated.

In the U.S., much of the carbon injected underground had been used to extract oil out of wells, a practice California banned in 2022. The Kern County project would instead remove carbon dioxide from natural gas produced at the oilfields.

Since 2022, the Biden administration has spurred a rush to construct these projects in the U.S. through the expansion of federal tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. Applications for 250 carbon capture injection wells are pending nationwide, according to the Clean Air Task Force, a Boston-based energy policy think tank monitoring the initiatives.

The Kern County project is considered a first step toward turning California into a hub for carbon capture — a venture that could receive tens of billions of dollars in government subsidies.

Federal officials also are reviewing 13 other carbon capture proposals in California, mostly in the Central Valley, at oil operations, power plants and other facilities.

The California Resources Corp., through its Carbon TerraVault subsidiary, holds seven of those applications, seeking authorization for 38 wells. The company has released injection data for only some of these proposed wells; those projects could qualify for federal tax credits worth almost $6 billion over a 12-year period. Aera Energy, now a subsidiary of California Resources Corp., also has an application for a carbon storage project.

California is required under state law to reach net-zero carbon by 2045 — which means that all carbon emissions from human activities are offset with projects that remove them. To meet that mandate, California officials in 2022 approved an ambitious plan that eliminates 94% of fossil fuels but also relies on carbon capture.

To stay on track, California Air Resources Board officials told CalMatters the state has to rely on carbon capture more than originally envisioned.

“It became clear that we could not get to 85% below 1990 levels (of greenhouse gases) by 2045 without broader application of (carbon capture and sequestration) on large emitting sources,” they said.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Laughing Sal shall laugh no more! Sal’s preëminent patron, fan of fun, Carol Lynn (née Ayers) Wilson of Eureka, has passed. Carol loved Laughing Sal, that iconic robotic greeter at Playland at the Beach. As a child she eagerly looked forward to visiting Playland with her family on yearly vacations to San Francisco. All are but a memory.

Carol, the daughter of Laila and Morris Ayers of Eureka, arrived on this good earth in 1942. She passed away in the manner she came in, quietly in a room with a view of rhododendrons, and of coastal redwoods reaching for the heavens.

Carol was an adventurer from the beginning. At age three she cut off her long blond braids to the horror of her mother, Laila Ayers, and kept her hair short for the rest of her days. She was independent. Her realms of adventure included gourmet French cuisine (and teaching her seven year old nephew how to prepare escargot).

Carol and her husband, Curtis F. Wilson, were global travelers. Their adventures included traveling the the world from Bora Bora to Moscow, Japan to Panama, rafting down the Colorado River, and driving from Eureka to Georgia with Carol’s father, Morris Ayers to visit the Ayers family homestead.

Carol met Curt when they were both students at Humboldt State College, and Curt was fresh from service in the Marine Corps. They were married when Carol was only 19. That commenced their lifelong love, until Curt’s death in 2014.

After their marriage, hiking throughout the Trinity Alps together became one of her new adventures. Over many decades they explored it all. Carol’s brother Robert Ayers, and Curt’s brother John Wilson, plus various nephews, and many friends, enjoyed her gourmet meals on these backpacking trips. She was the life of the party.

Carol and Curt both became avid runners, enjoying Bay to Breakers over the years and completing at least one marathon and many half-marathons.

Carol worked at many different jobs beginning in her college years, however for most of her career Carol served her patriotic duty catching tax evaders as an auditor for the IRS. Many good stories there (don’t ask)! She was a modest public servant in the role, drove a simple Honda with license plate BARUNER (draw your own conclusions to what that may mean).

Carol died on October 3, 2024, hence released from nine plus years of dementia. Her surviving family includes sister, Sylvia Crawford (Bill); her brother, Robert Ayers (Karen); plus nephews, Schuyler Crawford (Amy); Gabriel Holbrow (Hilary); niece Chelsea Ayers; nephew Dillon Ayers; and many Wilson in-laws including Linda, Judy, Vicki, and John.

May the angels of mercy guide Carol to peaceful rest.

Our thanks to Humboldt Hospice and Redwood RnR Nursing Home.

Donations are welcome at Humboldt Hospice, and to the Curtis F. and Carol L. Wilson Scholarship Fund at Humboldt Area Foundation.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Carol Wilson’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

Press release from the League of Women Voters of Humboldt County:

Housing inadequacy is a serious problem in Eureka. The League of Women Voters of Humboldt County has serious concerns over Measure F. While we are a non-partisan organization, supporting neither candidates nor parties, we may advocate on issues which we have studied and reached consensus. Concerning this measure we reference our Housing Positions:

• We support measures to encourage the county and cities to adopt regulations, programs and projects that will increase adequate, safe and sanitary housing stock for all income people.
• We support preparation and implementation of the Housing Element on a timely basis.
• We encourage active and transparent citizen involvement in housing elements revisions.

The City of Eureka planned for adequate low-income units with robust public input in the development of their Housing Element which now is certified by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) as required by law. Measure F would amend the Housing Element, which could leave Eureka short of California’s required number of housing units. This would put Eureka out of compliance with state law which in turn could subject the City of Eureka to litigation on several fronts.

The Overlay Zoning suggested in Measure F may not meet state law for minimum density requirements for low-income housing. In addition, the Jacobs property suggested to provide the required housing belongs to Eureka City Schools and is not under the control of the City of Eureka. Therefore, it cannot necessarily be depended upon to meet State requirements.

Revision and acceptance of a revised Housing Element could take years and have serious ramifications. It could delay housing development, does not guarantee housing will be built at the Jacobs site, puts Eureka at risk of litigation for non-compliance with State Housing Law, and could make project applications subject to the complicated Housing Accountability Act allowing builders to bypass the General Plan and local zoning regulations until a new Housing Element is approved.

Perhaps the most onerous is that if Measure F proves to be troublesome, revision can only be accomplished by another ballot measure to cure any deficiencies or unintended consequences.

Therefore, the League urges a no vote on Measure F.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• Ballot Battles, Lawsuits and a Ticked-Off Millionaire: CalMatters on Eureka’s Parking Lot Wars
• Security National Has Spent $710,645 and Counting on Measure F, the ‘Housing for All’ Initiative
• Eureka City Schools’ Deal With a Mystery Developer for the Jacobs Campus is Dead
• Anonymous AMG Communities Confirms Death of Jacobs Campus Deal, Vows to Try Again After Election Results
• Security National Just Dropped Another $286K Into Measure F, Bringing Its Total Spending to Nearly $1M
• How Will the Collapse of the Jacobs Campus Deal Impact Measure F? It Won’t, Backers Insist.
• What’s Next for the Jacobs Campus? The Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees Will Consider Five Options at Thursday’s Meeting
• Humboldt Progressive Democrats Endorse Candidates in Arcata, Eureka City Council Races, Urge ‘No’ Vote on Measure F
• Measure F Could Wreak Legal and Financial Havoc on Eureka, California Housing Defense Fund Warns
• With $1.15M From Security National, Measure F is Now the Most Expensive Ballot Initiative in Eureka History
• THE ECONEWS REPORT: What If Measure F Passes?
• The Measure F Campaign Called Him a Criminal and a Cheat. He Has a Different Story to Tell.
• GUEST OPINION: It’s Unfair That Media Coverage Doesn’t Note That Measure F Would Easily Solve All of Eureka’s Most Pressing Problems, Including Housing and Parking and the Economy
• State Housing Official Weighs in on Measure F; Security National Dumps Another $363K Into Campaign
  

Does Humboldt County need an anthem? Local farmer/songwriter Brett McFarland certainly seems to be staking claim to the honor of penning it with the release, today, of his music video for “Humboldt” off the album Humboldt. 

The five-and-a-half-minute song touches on a number of facets of local life and history — from the back-to-the-land movement, to the massacres of Native Americans, and, of course, weed — and the accompanying video features cameos from a handful of folks deemed sufficiently Humboldt. McFarland cites the musical outing as being one of the most significant accomplishments of his life.

“I’m a farmer. I feed people and regard that as highly important and valuable work,” McFarland states in a press release distributed to herald the release of his new music video. “But working on this project with the community here on the North Coast has been as meaningful as anything I’ve ever done in my life.”

That’s how Brett does it in Humboldt! Tune in and sing along to “Humboldt” in the clip above and read McFarland’s full release below:

Humboldt County farmer, Brett McFarland, has released the official music video for his song Humboldt on YouTube today. A social impact project off his album Humboldt, McFarland aims to celebrate unity and inspire environmental change through these uplifting short films. 

From loggers and ranchers to Wiyot, Hoopa, Karuk and Yurok Tribal members, the video highlights the resilience of this diverse Northern California community. Notable cameo appearances include:
TV Star and renowned craftsman Eric Hollenbeck

Local celebrities and regenerative farmers, The Foggy Bottom Boys

Hoopa Tribal Member Inker McCovey who serves as Director of Parks and Recreation and a cultural ambassador for the Hoopa Valley Tribe

Huckleberry Hill Farms’ Johnny Casali, who was sentenced to 10-years in prison before founding the first fully-licensed CA cannabis farm to grow for Willie Nelson’s brand Willie’s Reserve

Owners of the only oxen farm west of the Mississippi, ShakeFork Farm’s Cunningham duo

“I’m a farmer. I feed people and regard that as highly important and valuable work. But working on this project with the community here on the North Coast has been as meaningful as anything I’ve ever done in my life,” said McFarland. 

This video release is on the heels of his successful kickstarter campaign. The next video, Klamath, is already in the works and will tell the powerful story of the river’s demise, tribal-led undamming and restoration. The release for Klamath is slated for late November. 

The Official Music Video for Humboldt is now live on Youtube. To listen to the full album or learn more about the music visit www.brettmcfarlandmusic.com.

Three years ago, it wasn’t such a potential liability for a California Republican in Congress to be anti-abortion. Now, several of them are in competitive races to keep their seats.

Four signed a brief in 2021 urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the federal constitutional right to the procedure. Three of them co-sponsored a bill aiming to give equal protection under the Constitution to “preborn” life, which it stated started at fertilization. The legislation, which was backed by 166 House GOP members but never made it out of a committee, was essentially an attempted national abortion ban with no exceptions.

By this spring, those California incumbents had all walked away from the bill. Several of those in tight races say that they don’t support a federal ban, but that each state should decide abortion policy.

Democrats say it’s flip-flopping. Republicans say it’s a political overreach. They’re both calling the other side liars.

Buoyed by strong support for a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights in 2022 and polls showing Republicans nationally losing ground on the issue, Democrats are banking on abortion as they seek to flip or hold onto several California districts in their bid to win back the U.S. House majority.

They have help from abortion rights activists. Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California spent nearly $1.5 million this month on digital and mail ads targeting three of the state’s toss-up districts, attacking the incumbents as anti-abortion.

“A lot of these candidates … really all of them, have tried rewriting their records or reframing it, but their votes, previous comments and statements speak for themselves,” said Jennifer Wonnacott, the group’s spokesperson.

It’s a revival of Democrats’ play in the November 2022 elections, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that June: Democrats called out Republican incumbents for dodging the issue or amending their anti-abortion stances.

In the tight California races, the Democrats lost, but say there’s good reason to try again. If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidential election, having a Democratic Congress is key for her pledge to write Roe v. Wade into federal law. If former President Donald Trump wins, or if Republicans retain their House majority, activists say they fear Congress will attempt to restrict abortion in federal law, potentially upending California’s state constitutional right to the procedure.

They say the numbers are on their side. Across six toss-up U.S. House districts in November 2022, the state constitutional amendment on abortion got larger shares of the vote than the incumbent. Democrats have focused on the incumbents’ votes on a funding bill that would have limited access to the abortion pill and a bill to require doctors to rescue infants born alive during an attempted abortion — a rare occurrence — that critics called a way to intimidate abortion providers.

Republicans say Democrats are unlikely to get much traction on the broader abortion issue. California already allows it until the fetus can survive outside the womb, generally considered 24 weeks, and the GOP says voters are more interested in the economy.

Republicans also accused Democrats of mischaracterizing or exaggerating their positions. One ad for Democrat Rudy Salas suggests Rep. David Valadao opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest. The Republican was a co-sponsor of the “life at conception” bill in 2022. This year at a debate, he said he supports exceptions for rape or incest.

Representatives for Valadao and other Republican incumbents did not respond to CalMatters inquiries about their views. Neither did Salas’ campaign.

“Democrats are lying about California House Republicans’ positions on abortion because they cannot win on their disastrous handling of inflation and crime,” Ben Petersen, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement. The committee is among outside groups that have spent heavily in key California races.

Derek Tran, a Democrat running in California’s 45th Congressional District addresses canvassers at a Knock for Democracy event in Fullerton on Oct. 12, 2024. Photo by Carlin Stiehl for CalMatters

The districts — spanning the Central Valley, Orange County, the Inland Empire and outskirts of Los Angeles — are among the most competitive races in the country. According to a September poll, the candidates are separated by 5 percentage points or less, with one district virtually tied.

In the survey, researchers asked voters the first word that came to mind when they heard a candidate’s name. In the 13th, 45th and 47th districts, “pro-life” and “pro-choice” made the list.

“The fact that abortion is coming up unprompted at a relatively high rate in half these districts shows that it could potentially drive voters to the polls, and it’s certainly framing the way voters are thinking about these competitive congressional races,” said Christian Grose, a political science professor at the University of Southern California who is part of the polling team.

Still, it’s not certain that the abortion issue will tip the scales toward Democrats.

Republican incumbents in several of the districts won or held onto their seats two years ago despite a Democratic edge among registered voters. Since then, the GOP has picked up thousands of new voters in those districts.

And not all purple districts are the same.

In the 47th District in Orange County, where he’s running to succeed fellow Democrat Katie Porter, state Sen. Dave Min said he’s “running hard on abortion as one of our baseline issues” against Republican Scott Baugh.

In the neighboring 45th District, reproductive rights activists this month are knocking doors for Democrat Derek Tran, who is trying to unseat Republican Rep. Michelle Steel. Tran told CalMatters abortion is a “number one” issue in the district.

Some 300 miles to the north in the 13th District in the heart of the Central Valley, some Democratic voters and volunteers said abortion is a touchier subject. While the issue has galvanized young women, misinformation and rhetoric has pulled some “religious voters that would vote Democratic, to the right,” said Jared McCreary, a volunteer for Adam Gray’s congressional campaign.

At the edge of an event focused on Latino voters at a Merced park, two middle-aged women said their Catholic faith gave them mixed views about Democrats’ platform on abortion, but they remained loyal to the party over economic policy.

A relative, Geovanni Vera, joined them. The 21-year-old UC Merced student, who called himself pro-choice, chalked up the difference in opinion to generational divides, and said abortion rights would drive young voters like his classmates to the polls.

Angela Romero-Waterman, 59, said when she knocks on doors for Democrats, she discusses the separation of church and state with neighbors who are on the fence about abortion. A social worker, she and her partner said they were concerned not just about abortion rights, but an erosion of women’s rights overall.

U.S. Rep. John Duarte speaks during a Republican rally for the midterm election in Madera on Oct. 8, 2022. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters

The incumbent, Republican John Duarte, has said he’s a moderate on abortion, and said in a debate in 2022 that he supports the right to an abortion up to three months, or 12 weeks. This year, he told reporters that he and Trump — whose public statements on abortion have varied widely — are both “pro-choice,” and that states should get to decide abortion regulations.

Gray, who lost to Duarte by fewer than 600 votes in 2022, said he would vote to pass a federal law guaranteeing abortion rights.

“All this other nonsense about, ‘Well, I’m pro-choice, because states get to have a choice, that’s just lying to people,” Gray said in an interview.

A spokesperson for Duarte’s campaign did not respond to multiple interview requests.

CalMatters surveyed candidates in six swing districts about federal abortion laws. Two Republicans — Rep. Ken Calvert and Baugh — said they believe abortion should be left up to the states. The Democrats who responded — George Whitesides, Will Rollins, Tran and Min — said they would vote to codify a federal right to abortion if elected.

Two years ago, seven GOP House members from California co-sponsored the life-at-conception bill. This year, only three did; Steel was the only one in a tough race to do so, signing on nearly a year after it was introduced, during the March primary campaign. Two days after she won, she withdrew that support, saying that she backs in vitro fertilization. Now, her campaign ads highlight IVF and other women’s issues.

Tran called it an attempt to “erase the history that she signed on and co-authored” the bill. Steel did not respond to multiple requests for an interview or the survey.

At a canvassing event with Knock for Democracy in Placentia, Tran emphasized Steel’s record to canvassers — many of whom traveled from neighboring Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

“It’s definitely important to me,” said canvasser Jamie Hellebuick, a 26-year-old graduate student at UCLA, “because it’s people trying to control my body because of their own worldview.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.