Abortion rights groups are backing California Democrats in the escalating battle to redraw congressional maps, warning that Republicans are rigging seats on the heels of deeply unpopular cuts to safety net health programs and restrictions on reproductive care.<\/p>\n
And they worry there\u2019s more to come, including a national abortion ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYou take away our freedoms, we\u2019ll take away your seats,\u201d said Jodi Hicks, CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, during Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s pitch to adopt Democratic-leaning maps to offset President Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to bolster GOP seats in Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t sit idly by while the Trump administration, while their backers in Congress, pursue every avenue to strip blue states of their autonomy.\u201d<\/p>\n California legislators this week are debating the new congressional maps, drawn by Newsom allies, which would temporarily replace those drawn by the state\u2019s independent redistricting commission. If they\u2019re approved, voters would have the final say in a November special election.<\/p>\n The mobilization comes as Planned Parenthood, one of the nation\u2019s leading reproductive rights groups, tries to prevent further political and funding losses. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade<\/em> in 2022, conservative states<\/a>, including Texas, have implemented laws banning abortion almost entirely. And Republicans passed Trump\u2019s tax-and-spending bill with massive cuts to Medicaid<\/a>, which keeps safety net providers like Planned Parenthood afloat<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Trump administration also recently barred the organization and its affiliates from receiving reimbursement for nonabortion services such as cancer screenings and birth control, though a federal judge has temporarily paused enforcement<\/a> pending a legal challenge.<\/p>\n John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, said the anti-abortion group is not taking a position on either state\u2019s redistricting proposals. But, he said, Democrats\u2019 rhetoric about protecting democracy rings hollow when blue states like California pass \u201cshield laws<\/a>\u201d that protect patients seeking abortions and their health care providers from facing consequences and make it more difficult for states like Texas to enforce their laws.<\/p>\n Hicks, whose group represents about 1 in 5 Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide, promised to \u201cgo all in\u201d on Newsom\u2019s ballot measure. She declined to say how much money the organization would spend on the campaign.<\/p>\n She added that she wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see more health care groups \u2014 many of which opposed the recent Medicaid cuts<\/a> \u2014 jump into electoral politics following the passage of Trump\u2019s signature law. \u201cHealth care organizations that, maybe, don\u2019t get involved in those particular races are looking at things differently,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n So far, health industry support has been limited to abortion rights advocates. Reproductive Freedom for All, the national abortion rights group formerly known as NARAL, also lauded Newsom for \u201cholding Republicans accountable for trying to steal votes.\u201d<\/p>\n Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, the advocacy arm of the state\u2019s affiliates, has urged supporters to testify at special session meetings and held a webinar<\/a> to \u201cstop the redistricting power grab.\u201d And the national Planned Parenthood Action Fund encouraged leaders in Democratic states to use \u201call tools in their power to push back, level the national playing field, and stop the slide into authoritarianism.\u201d<\/p>\n Hicks and her group are no strangers to big political fights<\/a> \u2014 even against Newsom. Last year, she and other health leaders led a $56 million campaign to pass a revised state health care tax in November over the governor\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n Newsom, who is trying to build a national profile ahead of a potential 2028 presidential bid<\/a>, said the effort would \u201cneutralize\u201d Republican gerrymandering in Texas to pad their party\u2019s fragile five-seat advantage in the U.S. House. The party in the White House has generally lost congressional seats in the midterm elections, and political analysts say the trend appears likely to continue in 2026.<\/p>\n Newsom also called on lawmakers in other Democratic states<\/a> to follow suit if GOP states move ahead with redistricting plans. Leaders in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New York, and Ohio have suggested they could explore similar actions, creating a potential cascade that political experts have said could sow chaos in next year\u2019s midterm elections and set a dangerous precedent.<\/p>\n California Republican Party chair Corrin Rankin, whose party stands to lose five of the nine House seats it currently holds, called Newsom\u2019s proposal<\/a> a \u201ccalculated power grab that dismantles the very safeguards voters put in place\u201d when they passed congressional redistricting<\/a> reform in 2010.<\/p>\n Democratic leaders have cast the move as necessary to combat an existential threat to democracy. And they have criticized Republicans for trying to make an end run around voter anger toward their policies, particularly around health care. Nearly half of adults think the Republican-passed tax-and-spending law will hurt them, according to a July survey by KFF<\/a>. More than half believe abortion should be legal, at least under some circumstances, per a Gallup poll in May.<\/p>\n The Republican-passed megabill is projected to slash Medicaid, the federal health care program that covers low-income Americans, by nearly $1 trillion over 10 years. And the Trump administration has cut funding<\/a> to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, including clawing back medical and scientific research funds from universities.<\/p>\n \u201cThey know that voters will hold them accountable for the cuts they rammed through Congress that will strip health care away from millions of people,\u201d said Democratic state lawmaker Sabrina Cervantes, chair of the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee. \u201cBecause they know they cannot win fair elections, they are changing the rules in the middle of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Republican incumbents who could be redistricted into oblivion are crying foul.<\/p>\n \u201cMid-Decade redistricting is wrong, no matter where it\u2019s being done,\u201d Rep. Doug LaMalfa wrote on the social platform X. Last week, the seven-term Republican endured a hostile town hall in his rural Northern California district, defending his vote for the new law by saying it \u201cdoesn\u2019t cut a single dollar from people who qualify\u201d for Medi-Cal, the state\u2019s Medicaid program.<\/p>\n If approved by voters, proponents said, California\u2019s 52 new House districts would also bolster vulnerable congressional Democrats and be in effect for the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections. The map would not go into effect unless another state approved its own gerrymandering effort. After the 2030 census, the state commission would regain control of the process.<\/p>\n Paul Mitchell, a redistricting expert who helped draft the Democrats\u2019 map, said his team used the commission\u2019s district boundaries as a starting point and, for more than half the districts, moved fewer than 10% of voters.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a Twitter hack job,\u201d said Mitchell, a Democrat who is married to Hicks and has long supported the independent commission\u2019s work. \u201cI want to get back to nonpartisan redistricting, but right now we\u2019re in a crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n National polls<\/a> show voters oppose partisan redistricting. And California voters<\/a> still overwhelmingly support the state\u2019s independent redistricting system, said veteran GOP strategist Rob Stutzman, who added that passing such complicated ballot language in an off-year election would be no easy feat.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re asking voters to make an unprincipled decision. You\u2019re asking them to rig an election because allegedly Texas is rigging an election,\u201d Stutzman said. \u201c\u2018No\u2019 votes are so much easier when it\u2019s confusing, and this is extremely confusing.\u201d<\/p>\n Dave Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst for the Cook Political Report, said Texas and California have the potential to set off a \u201credistricting apocalypse\u201d that will have major implications in the fight to control Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Democrats fail to pass a ballot initiative to offset Texas, then Republicans would go from having a very narrow chance to hold the House to, perhaps, an even chance,\u201d he said. But, he added, public opinion on health care cuts remains the biggest obstacle in the party\u2019s path.<\/p>\n This article was produced by <\/em>KFF Health News<\/em><\/a>, which publishes <\/em>California Healthline<\/em><\/a>, an editorially independent service of the <\/em>California Health Care Foundation<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n