As Jonah noted earlier, Senator Feinstein said yesterday that in the 1960s, “as a member of the California Women’s Board of Terms and Parole, when California had what was called the indeterminate sentence law, I actually sentenced women who committed abortions to prison terms. I saw the morbidity. I saw the injuries they caused. And I don’t want to go back to those days.” Jonah asked whether this had been fact-checked.
Clarke Forsythe of Americans United for Life sent me some citations to California court cases indicating that state law did not treat women who sought abortions as criminals even before the 1967 liberalization:
People v. Clapp, 24 Cal. 2d 835, 151 P.2d 237 (1944)
People v. Stone, 89 Cal. App.2d 853, 202 P.2d 333 (1949)
“A woman who has submitted to an abortion is not an accomplice of the persons charged with performing, procuring, or conspiracy to procure the miscarriage.” People v. Kutz, 9 Cal.Rptr. 626, 630, 187 Cal.App.2d 2d 431 (1961)
“The abortee is considered the victim of the crime.” People v. Reinard, 33 Cal. Rptr. 908, 912, 220 Cal.App.2d 720, 724 (1963)
Forsythe adds: “The earliest CA court to consider the woman a victim may have been People v. Gibson, 33 Cal.App. 459, 166 P.2d 585 (1917).”
If Feinstein was talking about a female abortionist, or a woman who had herself aborted her unborn child, then her statement could be true. But the clear implication of her comment was that California penalized women who obtained abortions. That does not appear to be true.
UPDATE: A few emails and some reflection make me think that “the clear implication” was a little strong. Make that “a possible implication.”