Posthumous Pardon Announced For CA Abortion Activist

SACRAMENTO, CA — Gavin Newsom granted a posthumous pardon to Laura Miner, a California reproductive health services provider from 1934 to 1948, the governor's office announced in a news release Friday.

Laura Miner dedicated her career to providing safe and accessible elective abortions before being convicted and sentenced to four years in prison in 1949 for the felony crimes of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion, the release said.

“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. “Laura Miner’s story is a powerful reminder of the generations of people who fought for reproductive freedom in this country, and the risks that so many Americans now face in a post-Roe world. 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.”

As previously reported, in June the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion a protected right. In doing, so the high court unsettled what many had taken for granted as settled law, prompting 14 states to pass abortion restrictions and rattling pro-choice advocates and lawmakers in blue states such as California.

A copy of the pardon certificate granted today can be found here.