State must expand ER reproductive care California has long been a leader in protecting reproductive rights. But right now, there’s a big gap in care that many people don’t realize: emergency rooms aren’t always prepared to offer full reproductive health services. That’s why I’m urging our local lawmakers to support Assembly Bill 551. AB 551 would create a program to help emergency departments across the state provide better care for things like abortion, miscarriage treatment and birth control. These are basic health services, but too often people are left without options, especially in urgent or unexpected situations. It’s time to make sure everyone in California can get the reproductive health care they need, when and where they need it most. Ambar Campos America is wising up to Trump’s manipulations I am an Army veteran. I was a surgeon in Vietnam, where I patched up our brave soldiers. I fly the American flag on every national holiday … except this Flag Day. It hurt me not to honor the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. As one of the “suckers” who served, I could not honor a draft dodger. But there is hope that Americans and the international community are getting wise to his manipulations. I have confidence in the American people. Roger Ecker Padilla, not Noem, represents our state Before her goons grabbed California’s senior senator, Alex Padilla, dragged him out of the room, threw him to the ground and handcuffed him, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership this governor and this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.” So much for the freely elected representatives of the people of California, including Sen. Padilla. So, what happens after the Trump regime has resolved its fake emergency? Will it turn the government back to those “socialists,” or will it try to install sycophants like Noem to govern us without our consent? Merlin Dorfman Most Americans want to co-exist peacefully On “No Kings Day,” I was one of several volunteers at the Pleasanton Farmer’s Market handing out flyers with information about the Women’s Federal Prison in Dublin being privatized and used as an ICE detention center. I am very appreciative and want to thank all who took a flyer, stopped to chat or politely walked by. I am especially grateful to those who thanked us for doing this service, and to those who expressed concern about our safety. I also want to thank the woman who nicely mentioned that she doesn’t share our views as she walked by. The only opposition we had were passing cars: One driver gave us the finger and another shouted an obscenity as she, too, gave us the finger. It became very clear to me that the majority of Americans want fairness and decency to resolve differences; let’s help make it happen. Let California take on immigration alone I’m beginning to think Donald Trump, ICE and the National Guard should walk away from California for the next six months and let California be California with no federal assistance of any kind for any issues related to undocumented immigrant criminals and their crimes. In six months, we will evaluate the results of what Gavin Newsom, Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell and all the politicians up for reelection have accomplished to make California safer and more prosperous. If successful, they deserve our votes. If they spend the next six months playing the blame game, performing for cable TV, giving manic five-minute committee speeches, making videos or holding rallies with no actual positive results, we can then ask Trump and ICE to return, and we vote next year for new leadership in the state. Column misses damage done to Israel’s soul Re: “Israeli government endangers Jews everywhere” (Page A9, Jun 15). Thank you for printing Thomas Friedman’s op-eds; they are always insightful, as is this one about the dangers to Jews around the world of the immoral actions of Israel in both Gaza and the West Bank. However, I am afraid that he is wrong about one thing: It is already too late to avoid the terrible damage to Israel’s soul and the stain on its reputation. It will take generations to repair if, indeed, that is even possible. The same is true of the damage to the U.S. for its complicity in Israel’s war on the Palestinians’ right to exist. Beth Weinberger