"California Trusts Women." Can Women Trust California?

California's proposed new abortion-rights license plate is to take an oblique angle, using a  "California Trusts Women" theme.

Proceeds from the plate will benefit the Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment (FPACT) program, which provides family planning services to 1.8 million Californians every year. Currently, the FPACT program is overwhelmingly supported by federal funding, with the federal government picking up 90 percent of the tab. FPACT funding is also a vital source of funding for Planned Parenthood reproductive health care services.

Since the money is going to Planned Parenthood and not to actual women, isn't the issue whether or not California can trust Planned Parenthood? And if so, to do what?

Edrica Goode , a 21-year-old woman who dreamed of becoming an attorney, trusted a Planned Parenthood in Riverside, California, in late January of 2007. Despite clear signs of infection, a nurse practitioner inserted laminaria (seaweed sticks that absorb vaginal moisture and expand, thus dilating the cervix) and sent her home. Not surprisingly, Edrica was quickly struck with an infection so swift and severe that it left her incoherent and unable to communicate the cause of her illness to her family or the medical professionals who tried but failed to save her life.

Diana Lopez, age 25, was 19 weeks pregnant when trusted Planned Parenthood in February, 2002. Had her abortion been performed with due care and diligence, it should have taken between 10 and 20 minutes. The doctor rushed through it in only six minutes, leaving Diana with severe internal lacerations. Before the day was over, Diana had bled to death, and her two young children were left motherless.

Holly Patterson age 18, trusted a Planned Parenthood in Hayward, California in September of 2003. They provided the drugs for a medication abortion. Rather than instruct Holly to administer the second drug inside her cheek to dissolve, which is the recommended method, Planned Parenthood instructed Holly to insert the drug vaginally. For reasons that are still not understood, administering the drug this way had been shown to trigger swiftly-fatal Toxic Shock Syndrome. This is what happened to Holly. By the time she got to the hospital, it was too late to save her.

Vivian Tran, 22 years old, decided in December of 2003 to trust the Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood facility. She died just as Holly Patterson died, from TSS linked to the vaginal rather than buccal (inside the cheek) administration of the second of two medication abortion drugs. Evidently Planned Parenthood had chosen not to learn anything from Holly Patterson's death.

So, California, the question is not whether or not you trust women. It is whether they can trust you. Will you continue to turn a blind eye, or will you stop pumping money into Planned Parenthood and start demanding that they earn your trust before you give them another dime?