Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) on Friday condemned San Francisco's travel-ban ordinance meant to cut city-funded travel and company contracts with 22 pro-life states.
"Progressive cancel culture is dumb," Sasse said in a statement. "Most Nebraskans, like a whole bunch of Californians, are pro-life and want to reflect our pro-science, pro-woman, pro-baby beliefs with common-sense laws. Folks in San Francisco are free to disagree, but it's childish to try to shut down a big cultural debate."
The ordinance prohibits "City-funded travel to states that have enacted laws that prohibit abortion prior to the viability of the fetus, and to prohibit City contracting with companies headquartered in states that have enacted such laws, or where work on the contract would be performed in such states." Nearly half the states in the country, including Texas, Massachusetts, and Florida, would be subject to the ban.
Sasse said that, unlike the San Francisco government, pro-life individuals are willing to listen to people with opposing views.
"Pro-lifers aren't out to silence the other side — we believe in persuasion," he said. "San Francisco progressives can throw a tantrum — Nebraskans will continue to act like grownups."
According to a 2014 Pew Research Center study, 38 percent of Californians think abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.
San Francisco has a history of imposing progressive restrictions connected to conservative politics. In September, the city branded the National Rifle Association as a "domestic terrorist organization," arguing the gun-rights group incites "gun owners to acts of violence."