California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Sunday the launch of a multistate ad campaign to combat proposed restrictions on abortion travel in several Republican-controlled states. Newsom’s campaign aims to fight against bills that seek to ban out-of-state travel for abortions and related medications, labeling them as attempts to control women and limit their freedom.

The six-figure ad campaign, along with an online petition effort, is scheduled to kick off on Monday with a TV ad targeting a bill in Tennessee. The bill in Tennessee, sponsored by eight Republican male legislators, proposes making “abortion trafficking” a felony offense. This bill would criminalize adults who help minors obtain abortions or abortion medications without parental consent and allow for civil lawsuits in cases of the “wrongful death of an unborn child that was aborted.”

Similar legislation is pending in other states like Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama, all of which have strict abortion regulations in place. Newsom plans to combat these restrictive measures through RightToTravel.org, an initiative funded by a national political action committee he launched last year with $10 million from his state campaign funds. He has named the effort the “Campaign for Democracy” and characterized it as a response to the conservative GOP agenda.

In a statement about the campaign, Newsom declared, “We can’t let Trump Republicans hold women hostage. These abortion travel bans are a new, sick and twisted attempt by the far right to control women and take away their freedom. We have to fight back.”

One of the key sponsors of the Tennessee bill, Republican state Rep. Jason Zachary, stated that the legislation aims to protect parental rights in making decisions about medical procedures for their children. He emphasized that the bill does not seek to restrict interstate travel, which falls under federal jurisdiction, but rather the transportation of minors within Tennessee.

Tennessee is among the states that have imposed strict abortion bans with limited exceptions, leaving few options for pregnant individuals seeking abortions within the state. Critics of the “abortion trafficking” bill argue that its true purpose is to prevent access to abortions in states where the right to abortion is protected.

During a hearing on the bill, Zachary faced questioning from Democratic legislators who raised concerns about the potential criminalization of trusted adults who may help minors with unwanted pregnancies. Newsom’s new ad campaign is set to launch with a powerful ad titled “Hostage,” which depicts a young woman handcuffed to a hospital bed, highlighting the impact of restrictive abortion laws on women.

“Trump Republicans want to criminalize young women who travel to receive the reproductive care they need,” the ad’s narrator asserts. “Don’t let them hold Tennessee women hostage.”