SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Recognizing that California hasn’t always been the bastion for reproductive freedom that it is today, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday granted a posthumous pardon to a woman who went to prison for providing then-illegal abortions in the 1930s and 40s.
At age 50, Laura Miner, a licensed chiropractor in San Diego, was convicted in 1949 of the felony crimes of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion and sentenced to four years in prison.
Newsom said that Miner’s story was was a powerful reminder of those who fought for reproductive freedom in the U.S. — and those who are once again facing increased medical risks after the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“In California, we’re never going back to a time when women were forced to seek basic health care in back rooms and underground clinics,” Newsom said in a statement. “Miner paid a price for taking a stand, and today we’re taking a step to right this injustice and reaffirm California’s commitment to defending the hard-won progress made by countless advocates and health care providers over the decades.”
California outlawed abortion at its founding in 1850, forcing people who had unwanted pregnancies to seek unregulated and often dangerous means to get an abortion.
As one of the few female health practitioners in her area, Miner frequently received requests for abortion services. And from 1934 to 1948, Miner decided to risk prosecution and provide them. According to an article written by her granddaughter Robin Beers, Miner’s clients included movie stars, ballet dancers and athletes.
In 1948, however, police got wind of Miner’s underground operation and she and her staff were arrested. The following year, Miner was convicted in the Superior County of San Diego and sentenced to four years in prison. She served one year and seven months in prison and two years and three months on parole.
“Laura Miner was a hero ahead of her time who willingly traded her own freedom to save countless women — women who risked everything to make their own health care decisions and, in a very basic sense, choose their own future,” Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, a San Diego Democrat, said in a statement. “Laura’s bravery deserved to be commended, not prosecuted, and I’m grateful that we have evolved enough to be able to pardon her today.”
The governor’s pardon announcement comes days before California voters will decide whether to enshrine the right to abortion in the state’s constitution through Proposition 1, which Newsom has been a vocal proponent of.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Newsom and the California Legislature have taken a slew of steps to make California a sanctuary state for reproductive care. The state launched a website, abortion.ca.gov, to provide people with information about reproductive care in California, including their legal rights to abortion and where to find providers and financial assistance.
Newsom also signed legislation that prohibits state agencies or departments from sharing any medical records or patient data with other states or individuals seeking to restrict access to abortion.
Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, a professor of history at La Sierra University in Riverside, California, wrote a book examining the history of criminal abortion in California and the underground network of physicians who defied state law to provide the health care service. In a statement Friday, Gutierrez-Romine said Miner’s work and advocacy helped open the door to the reproductive freedom that Californians have today.
“Ms. Miner gave women a safe alternative in a dark era for reproductive rights,” Gutierrez-Romine said in a statement. “As states across the country revive efforts to restrict access to legal abortion, we need only look back to understand the dangerous and devastating consequences of denying the right to choose.”
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