FREE
Fireworks seized and destroyed in Lake Elsinore
Husband of day care owner accused of molesting children
PG 02
PG 27
MONDAY, JULY 15- JULY 21, 2024
VISIT RIVERSIDEINDEPENDENT.COM
How abortion’s legal landscape post-Roe is causing fear and confusion By Nicole Lewis and Aala Abdullahi, The Marshall Project via Stacker
F
or years before the Supreme Court upended Roe v. Wade, the landmark precedent protecting abortion access, a network of conservative Christians was slowly and methodically stacking the courts through political means. “What Trump and his Republican allies had done was to change the country by leveraging political force to conquer the courts,” Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer wrote in their recent recounting of the network’s maneuvering for The New York Times Magazine. “Their policy arms churned out legal arguments and medical studies. Their lawyers argued their cases, and their judges ruled on them,” Dias and Lerer explained. This strategy helps to decode the ever-changing post-Roe legal landscape. With Roe out of the way, and with many courts stacked in their favor, conservative state legislatures have continued to pass increasingly restrictive and punitive abortion laws. At least 14 states have banned abortion with limited exceptions since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision ended Roe in 2022. Another seven states have banned the procedure before 18 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that advocates for reproductive rights, including abortion. Nearly two years after Dobbs, the legality of abortion in the United States is still being debated in court. A total of 40 cases have challenged abortion bans in 23 states as of January, according to the think tank Brennan Center for Justice The Marshall Project has been tracking the ripple effects of these laws
VOL. 10,
NO. 180
Inland Empire Health Plan adds $5M to Wellness Village project By Staff
T
he Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday a $5 million payment from the Inland Empire Health Plan to the Riverside University Health System to help fund construction of a facility in Mead Valley. The $580 million, 18-acre Wellness Village campus located at Harvill and Placentia avenues is under construction following a June 12 groundbreaking ceremony. “The agreement approved today underscores our dedication to creating a holistic recovery environment at the Wellness Village,” RUHS – Behavioral Health Director Dr. Matthew Chang said in a statement. “The initiative expands behavioral health services and provides Riverside County residents with essential resources and support systems in one place, ensuring comprehensive care and recovery. We’re grateful for this show of support.” Slated for completion in 2026 or early 2027, the facility will feature a “crisis residential behavioral health center” for children under 13 and a children’s mental health urgent care, which are both firsts in Riverside County. Other services expected to be available at the new medical campus include access to primary-care doctors, dental care, addiction disorder services, supportive housing and a pharmacy, plus “onsite respite for families whose See Wellness Village project Page 28
| Photo courtesy of Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Stacker
and lawsuits, particularly in Southern states in which most pregnancy-related prosecutions are concentrated. We wanted to understand how reproductive rights lawyers, advocacy groups, abortion providers and their patients are responding to this new legal reality and what new risks they face. Over the course of several weeks, we heard from seven organizations in Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. The end of Roe ushered in a climate of fear and confusion, many of the organizations told us. New laws and novel prosecutorial tactics have raised critical questions about free speech, interstate travel, telemedicine and more. All while the reproductive rights legal community has scrambled to keep up. Here are other important takeaways: Abortion laws are a free-speech issue A set of lawsuits in Alabama, where abortion is
banned, illustrates the new dynamics. State Attorney General Steve Marshall threatened to prosecute anyone helping residents get an out-of-state abortion. The threat extends to organizations, such as Yellowhammer Fund, that provide information about where to go and what to consider when seeking an abortion in a state where the procedure is legal. Yellowhammer Fund and another organization filed suit, questioning the constitutionality of the state ban. Such prosecutions would violate Alabamians’ right to free speech, they argued. Marshall “has threatened to criminalize in a way calculated to chill the speech, expressive conduct, and association of helpers, and to isolate pregnant people — a known tactic of abusers — to make it more difficult for them to travel See Abortion Page 02
and access needed medical care,” lawyers for the case explained in their initial complaint. Marshall moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing the state could prosecute people using its anti-conspiracy laws. But earlier this month a federal judge ruled the lawsuit can proceed. Many of the reproductive rights organizations we spoke to across the South said they’ve also struggled with what information they can legally share. Most lawyers won’t give them guidance, one group told us, saying the laws are too untested and too risky. Many new laws have little legal precedent Many of the recent state laws take aim at people helping someone seeking an abortion or those looking to leave a state where abortion is illegal. Several states have focused on aid to minors.
San Bernardino County to add treatment facility to reduce homelessness By Joe Taglieri joet@beaconmedianews.com
T
o try to reduce homelessness, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors approved plans Tuesday for a $51.4 million drug treatment facility in Victorville. Supervisors voted 5-0 without discussion to expand the county’s available options for substance-use treatment as part of the effort to keep residents battling addiction from becoming unhoused. The funding, which is sourced from a state grant, will be used to build new facilities at the Comprehensive Treatment Campus at 13333 Palmdale Road in Victorville, according to county documents. In January 2023 the county bought nine single-story buildings, totaling about 17,770 square feet, on a nearly-30 acre lot to house the new medical campus. The facility will add 18 adult withdrawal management beds, 36 adult substance use disorder residential treatment beds, an adult outpatient clinic, a youth campus with a 14-bed Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility for adolescents, a 16-bed adolescent substance use disorder residential treatment facility, a youth and adolescent outpaSee Homelessness Page 27