SACRAMENTO – This afternoon, on the last day of the legislative session, the California Assembly approved a first of a kind bill that requires public university health centers to become abortion providers. Former California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill last year, stating it wasn’t necessary, with abortion clinics located within miles of every UC and CSU campus. Yet last year, Governor Gavin Newsom promised on the campaign trail to sign the bill. It remains to be seen if Newsom will fulfill that promise or listen to his own financial officials who opposed the bill as unworkable.
“It is truly infuriating to see the California Assembly vote to endanger women just to score points with Planned Parenthood,” said Jonathan Keller, President of California Family Council. “You don’t have to be pro-life to recognize SB 24 is bad for colleges and dangerous for students.”
Abortion activists defeated SB 320 last year, also sponsored by Senator Connie Leyva (D-San Bernardino), because of a governor veto. It was nearly identical to this year’s SB 24. In his veto message from September 30, 2018, Brown correctly noted that “the average distance to abortion providers in campus communities varies from five to seven miles, not an unreasonable distance.”
Keller agreed with the former governor and urged Newsom to turn down the measure.
“Governor Brown was right in vetoing this dangerous legislation last year, and his veto message applies today which states, ‘because the services required by this bill are widely available off-campus, this bill is not necessary,’’ Keller quoted. “We hope Governor Newsom will listen to his predecessor and reject SB 24.”
Leyva spent the last two and a half years trying to get approval for a bill that forces public university health centers to dispense RU-487, an abortion drug that kills an unborn child up to 10 weeks old. She has repeatedly mischaracterized chemical abortion as easy and convenient, with side effects no different than those of Aspirin or Ibuprofen.
