California’s Democratic leaders are making moves to protect abortion rights following the leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion that suggests Roe v. Wade will be overturned.
Still, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other legislative leaders are working to add an amendment to the California constitution. Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, said she plans to introduce the amendment, which would specifically clarify abortion as a protected right. The idea of the proposed amendment is to ensure the right to choose, no matter what happens on the state or federal level.
“We will not back down. We will double down,” Atkins said. “If the Supreme Court of the United States won’t protect our bodily autonomy, California will make sure our constitution leaves no room for confusion.”
One bill has already been signed by Newsom, and that is Senate Bill 245, which eliminates cost-sharing. It requires all state-licensed health care service plans or disability insurance policies issued after 2022 to cover abortion services without a co-payment, deductible, or any type of cost-sharing requirement. These cost-sharing protections would apply to a health plan enrollee’s covered spouse and dependents and to Medi-Cal beneficiaries.
Other reproductive rights legislation in the works
- Assembly Bill 1666 would protect patients and providers from civil actions and financial retaliation they might face for providing abortion care that is legal in California.
- Assembly Bill 1918 would create the California Reproductive Health Service Corps in the Department of Health Care Access and Information. It would be responsible for recruiting, training and retaining a diverse workforce.
- Assembly Bill 2091 would protect the medical privacy of patients by ensuring that out-of-state subpoenas are not granted.
- Assembly Bill 2134 would create the California Reproductive Health Equity Program to give grant funding to safety net providers who offer abortion. This would increase access for people who seek abortions but cannot pay for them.
- Assembly Bill 2205 would require a health care service plan to annually report the total amount of funds in the segregated account maintained pursuant to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
- Assembly Bill 2223 would make sure no one in California will be investigated, prosecuted or incarcerated for ending a pregnancy.
- Assembly Bill 2320 would establish a pilot program for five counties in California to support capacity building for community health centers that provide reproductive healthcare services.
- Assembly Bill 2586 would address the reproductive health disparities facing communities of color. The bill would combat this by developing policy recommendations and support reproductive justice community-based organizations.
- Assembly Bill 2626 would protect abortion providers by preventing professional boards from revoking or suspending their licenses for providing legal abortion care.
- Senate Bill 1142 would create a website under California Health and Human Services which would direct people to links for abortion care, post-operation resources and financial support services.
- Senate Bill 1245 would support a funded pilot program for Los Angeles County to build on statewide efforts to advance California as a “Reproductive Freedom” state.
- Senate Bill 1375 would allow nurse practitioners who are authorized to practice independently, to provide first-trimester abortion care without physician supervision.
On the other hand, pro-life advocates said they think California lawmakers should follow the lead of the Supreme Court draft opinion. The group Californians for Life protested outside a Sacramento Planned Parenthood building Tuesday, as they do every Tuesday and Wednesday, and said California should do what some other states have done: institute an abortion ban.
“We see the country going in the right direction,” Californians for Life Director Wynette Sills said. “But unfortunately, things will remain either the same or probably get even worse in terms of pro-abortion position that our governor has taken.”
Full story at KCRA.com.
Y’all said you wanted to leave it to the states…
—-filed under: be careful what you ask for
Will take it, we know corrupt sewers like California would codify child sacrifice, but plenty of other states won’t. May the Mexican Cartels reconquest their lost land of California.
Their lost land of California?
Historically, that’s just ridiculous. Alta California was Catholic land — thanks to Fr. Serra — before it was ever anything else.
Mission accomplished….face it California is no longer Catholic in any way shape or form. My point being their is at least a nominal Catholic culture still left in Mexico, I would much rather seem them have it then left in the hands in current Satanist that run the State
When I was a student at Archbishop Mitty High School, the lame excuse given by the moderators of the Mitty Advocacy Project (MAP) and the chaperones for Catholic Lobby Day for why the students never were permitted to advocate for nor bring up pro-life opposition to legal abortion with state legislators was that it wasn’t on the legislative agenda. Well, now it is. Will Mitty and the religion teachers/moderators now encourage, assist and train students to engage in pro-life advocacy and lobbying because Catholic faith demands it? Nope, is my prediction, because they’re all rabid Democrat leftists and they don’t believe that abortion is immoral, nor should it be illegal. One religion teacher even wore a NOW (National Organization for Women) pin on her shirt while teaching. Oh, and besides that the new president of the school is a proven, documented supporter of abortion.
Bishop Cantu is either a coward or compromised.
Um yeah we’re graduating for summer vacay in a couple weeks so no Mitty activities until Sep.
Demonically inspired politicos paving their personal paths toward hell, trying to drag as many souls with them as possible.
One could say the same thing about pedophile priests who molested children.
You like the taste of red herring, do ya’?
Well, lets be specific…male sexual predators that sexually exploited teenaged boys. Something that is whole heartedly endorsed by certain California legislators.
If there is another life in that body then it is not just her body. That life should have a voice. End of story.
I wonder what Newsom thinks about bodily autonomy when it comes to requiring the COVID vaccine for children? What a hypocrite!
I hope all Catholic churches in our state will have good protection this Sunday, Mother’s Day, because a bunch of sick, rabid, abortion fanatics are all planning to disrupt Mass and harm Catholic churches, all across America! Very scary! Wish our Church, and all other churches, would get tough on sin and crime, in the pulpit– and also, excommunicate “bad Catholics,” like Newsom, Pelosi, and Biden!
And excommunicate bishops like Stowe, Cupich and McElroy and priests like Massingale, Martin and Horan.
That will be the day….suppress the entire Jesuit Order, confiscate their properties and hand them over the to FSSP and ICKSP
I agree with “excommunicate” and “bohemond!”
Newsom – the Caesar of Killifornia.
Join 40 Days For Life to publicly and spiritually oppose California’s Deproductive Rights policies.
All of these bills are just pandering. Not a single one changes anything on the abortion free for all that is California. That so much time is being spent on this by the CA legislature is just further validation that they are all delusional. May as well legalize second base in baseball.
What they are doing is proposing laws to establish and define the right to seek and perform abortions, which will be necessary if the Supreme Court overturns Roe and Casey. Without a court ruling establishing a federal constitutional right to abortion, a state must codify it as a state right.