Bible-waving California lawmaker blames state's drought on God's wrath over abortion

California State Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, a Republican, hinted last week that if the drought-stricken state would adopt laws restricting abortions like Texas, God would make it rain.

"Texas was in a long period of drought until Governor Perry signed the fetal pain bill," RH Reality Check reports she said at the California ProLife Legislative Banquet, held in Sacramento last Monday. "It rained that night. Now God has His hold on California."

Grove, who represents Kern County and the Central Valley and serves on the assembly's agriculture committee, brought a Bible to the podium and held it above her head before launching into her fiery speech at the Grand Hotel. Banquet guests included clergy, anti-abortion groups and politicians, RH Reality Check reports.

She seemed to be referring to HB2, signed into law by conservative former Texas governor and 2016 presidential contender Rick Perry in 2013. HB2 places restrictions on abortion, including a 20-week ban that abortion rights activists say is based on the junk science notion fetuses can feel pain at that point.

California is in its fourth year of severe drought, with Governor Brown declaring a state of emergency in January. Last year was the driest on record, with records going back 160 years, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

In April, Governor Brown issued the state's first mandatory water restrictions, according to the L.A. Times.

While the ultimate cause of the "vast" zone of high atmospheric pressure off the West Coast blocking Pacific winter storms is unknown, the drought has prompted many to review California's agricultural water rights, the Sacramento Bee reports.

In response to Grove's fire-and-brimstone take on the drought,  California ProLife Council chairman Brian Johnston seemed to distance himself

"That was never said by me or the California ProLife Council," he told RH Reality Check.

Grove herself has taken a more measured approach in the past, last year taking to her Facebook page to blame the water shortage on federal restrictions protecting the endangered Delta smelt fish that live in the state's dwindling water supply.