Letters to the Editor: Abortion rights are safe in California? Don’t be so sure

To the editor: Is his column on Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis’ campaign for governor, columnist Mark Z. Barabak writes, “Legal abortion is not remotely at risk in California.”

Journalists should be more careful when making sweeping statements such as this — especially one about a woman’s ability to choose, which could be reversed nationally if the MAGA party wins in November.

We don’t need a journalist from a major U.S. newspaper making statements that give voters a false sense of security regarding a freedom that a majority of Americans support.

We need voters in all states to come out and vote to maintain all of our freedoms, because they are all at risk. That’s what’s at stake. If voters in heavily Democratic states stay home because they feel their freedoms are safe, then our democracy will quickly fall to autocracy.

Good for Kounalakis for supporting reproductive freedom in Arizona and Nevada too. That’s what women do — we support each other.

Angela Benson, San Diego

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To the editor: Speaking as a devout, lifelong, California Democrat, I feel it’s much too early to make a decision on which of the talented Democrats to support in the 2026 gubernatorial contest.

However, I must register a strong disagreement with Barabak’s statement that “legal abortion is not remotely at risk in California.”

I can think of three reasons why it is at risk: A U.S. Supreme Court decision is imminent on medication abortions; if Republicans take both houses of Congress and the presidency, I’m sure Senate Republicans will drop the 60-vote cloture rule so they can enact a national ban on abortion; and the next president gets to fill Supreme Court vacancies.

Ron Garber, Duarte