Abortion isn’t on the ballot in California, but state candidates can’t stop talking about it

By Alexei Koseff (CALMATTERS) – A campaign spot flooding TV airwaves in the Sacramento region this election season warns that the incumbent Republican Assemblymember is “backed by anti-abortion extremists” who “know he’ll back their dangerous, anti-choice agenda.” Residents of the northern Los Angeles suburbs might find their YouTube videos begin with an ominous pre-roll ad declaring the GOP challenger to the local Assemblymember is “too dangerous for our community” because he “would ban abortion.” And around Palm Springs, a Democratic hopeful is running a commercial that highlights a vote, taken by the Republican senator she is hoping to unseat, against a bill to prohibit criminal prosecution of miscarriages and stillbirths. “Which state Senate candidate will protect reproductive freedom?” the narrator asks. Though California politicians have affirmed and expanded the state’s commitment to abortion access since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to the procedure two years ago, Democrats running in competitive legislative seats this November are nevertheless making the threat to reproductive health care a central message. The outcome of any individual race will not substantially change policy at the state Capitol, which has been dominated for decades by Democrats who support abortion rights. But some candidates say...