In the era before Roe vs. Wade, an L.A. police abortion squad went after women and providers

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Monday, April 3.

It’s been just over nine months since the U.S. Supreme court overturned Roe vs. Wade, ending nearly 50 years of constitutional abortion protection. While some states, like California, have moved to strengthen their roles as safe havens, others have enacted bans on most abortions.

Police and prosecutors in those states must work out how to enforce the new laws.

Right now, “no one knows for sure what enforcement of abortion laws will look like,” Times reporter Brittny Mejia wrote last week. “But L.A. in the 1950s and 1960s offers a hint into at least one possibility.”

Brittny’s story chronicles the mostly latent history of the Los Angeles Police Department’s abortion squad, which went after abortion providers and patients who sought the procedure at a time when it was illegal except to save a woman’s life.

Brittny first heard of the LAPD’s abortion squad while reporting on an illegal abortion that took place in California in 1966. She found testimony from an LAPD officer who said he was part of the Homicide Division’s “Abortion Detail.”

“I immediately thought: ‘What is an abortion detail?’” Brittny told me. “That led me down a rabbit hole of old news clips and archival court records to answer the question.”

Public records requests to the LAPD were unsuccessful, so Brittny relied on state archives and testimony from her previous reporting, plus help from Times news researcher Jennifer Arcand, who put together more than a hundred clips from bygone L.A. newspapers.

The abortion detail was formed in the early 1950s, when American culture preached a standard for women as the picture-perfect wife and mother.

“But throughout the City of Angels, women and girls desperate to get an abortion were dying as a result of operations often done by people not qualified to perform them,” Brittny writes.

Officers conducted stakeouts and sting operations, raided suspected abortion sites — including, in one instance, a yacht — and posed as boyfriends or brothers to elicit confessions.

The LAPD also had help from hospitals, which at the time were required to report women who came in with possible signs of a criminal abortion. Brittny writes:

For her, that was the most surprising aspect of the story.

“Growing up in a world with HIPAA, which protects sensitive patient information, I could not wrap my mind around hospital staff calling the cops on women,” Brittny said.

One squad member, Det. Danny Galindo, was described at the time as handsome and likeable by journalist John Bartlow Martin, who wrote that the abortion squad was “expert at persuading girls to talk.” Galindo would go the gentle route, according to Martin, and if that didn’t work, his partner “talks tough to them.”

Brittny wrote:

In 1973, the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe vs. Wade enshrined the right to abortion. Detectives like Galindo were reassigned, and the squad faded away.

Could law enforcement rely on similar tactics today in states that move to criminalize the procedure?

That’s a persisting uncertainty. While it seems unlikely that abortion squads will return in California, Brittny recounted asking law enforcement in El Paso, Texas, how abortion cases would be handled there, now that the procedure is outlawed.

“A spokesperson told me: ‘The El Paso Police Department enforces the laws of the state of Texas; as such, any crime reported to the El Paso Police Department will be investigated and handled accordingly,’” she said.

You can read Brittny’s story on LAPD’s abortion squad here.

And now, here’s what’s happening across California.

Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing.

L.A. STORIES

In Chinatown, a network of social clubs has long provided mutual aid to Chinese immigrants excluded from mainstream society. But with many of those immigrants’ children and grandchildren assimilated into U.S. culture, the clubs face an uncertain future. Los Angeles Times

Choi Kwan, 83, center, is joined by other members of the Lung Kong Dancing Group Assn. during a practice session.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Eager to flex your green thumb now that the sunshine has returned? Here are some tips for how to prepare your L.A. garden after all that rain. Los Angeles Times

A battle over executive pay at L.A. hospitals could come down to how much the U.S. president makes in a year. A ballot measure backed by a healthcare workers union seeks to cap salaries for hospital executives as “the total compensation for the president of the United States,” listed as $450,000. But the California Hospital Assn. argues that the president makes more than that when factoring in travel expenses, residency at the White House and other discretionary funds. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Gov. Gavin Newsom has been on a publicity blitz for months, running TV ads in Florida, putting up billboards in seven states that banned abortion and launching a political action committee. Columnist Mark Z. Barabak asks: Can Newsom “kinda but not really run for president and still do his job as California governor?” Los Angeles Times

Residents of a homeless encampment in Sacramento successfully negotiated an innovative lease with the city that advocates hope could become a model across California. Through the lease, Sacramento officials are legally required to place every resident from the Camp Resolution community into permanent, stable housing. The Sacramento Bee

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Residents in the Bay Area city of Martinez are still waiting for answers months after a refinery spewed pollutants into the air, blanketing neighborhoods in hazardous material. The Contra Costa County Health Department took more than a month to inform residents of the nature of the incident. Los Angeles Times

Beginning today, California no longer requires masks in healthcare settings to protect against COVID-19. That leaves isolation as the last control in place against the virus, though the state has loosened guidance on how long people who test positive should stay home. San Francisco Chronicle

Small, unincorporated communities in northwestern Los Angeles County have been experiencing serious climate whiplash. Residents of Lake Hughes and Elizabeth Lake previously rejected proposals to form a flood control district. But a barrage of wildfires, flash floods and landslides in recent years could change that. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

The San Diego State Aztecs are one win away from the NCAA men’s championship. A buzzer-beater by Lamont Butler secured the university its first national title game. They’ll take on the UConn Huskies Monday night in Houston. San Diego Union-Tribune

AND FINALLY

Today’s California landmark comes from Stephanie Eng-Namba of Corona Del Mar: the “iconic” Bixby Bridge.

The Bixby Bridge on Pacific Coast Highway 1, photographed in March 2023.

(Stephanie Eng-Namba)

Stephanie writes:

What are California’s essential landmarks? Fill out this form to send us your photos of a special spot in California — natural or human-made. Tell us why it’s interesting and what makes it a symbol of life in the Golden State. Please be sure to include only photos taken directly by you. Your submission could be featured in a future edition of the newsletter.

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

VIDEO | 06:08

LA Times Today: In the era before Roe vs. Wade, an L.A. police abortion squad went after women and providers

Watch L.A. Times Today at 7 p.m. on Spectrum News 1 on Channel 1 or live stream on the Spectrum News App. Palos Verdes Peninsula and Orange County viewers can watch on Cox Systems on channel 99.