Over the weekend, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed AB 624, a bill to force all public middle, high school, and colleges to print a “sexual or reproductive health” hotline on the back of student IDs. The California Family Council believed this bill provided Planned Parenthood an open invitation to advertise its sex advice chat-line to millions of potential abortion customers in California public schools. But it seems the bill wasn’t airtight enough in Newsom’s mind to prevent school officials from directing students to resources that didn’t include abortion information, like this pro-life pregnancy center in Bakersfield, CA.
The Governor explained his decision in his AB 624 veto letter. “I do not support, however, burdening schools with the job of investigating local reproductive health agencies as the bill would require. There are many agencies across this state that refuse to give women information about all of their reproductive health care options, and I am not persuaded that schools have the appropriate expertise to decide which of these organizations they should direct their students to,” Newsom’s letter stated.
“While we are grateful for Governor Newsom’s veto of AB 624, it is painfully obvious his primary concern was not the safety of girls and the lives of their unborn children. Rather, he feared some brave school officials might direct students to pro-life pregnancy resource centers instead of big abortion and their allies,” said California Family Council President Jonathan Keller.
AB 624 required the sexual and reproductive health information given to students to be “consistent with the information about local resources required to be provided pursuant to the California Healthy Youth Act,” California’s sex-education law that includes no pro-life resources. Yet it seems, Newsom feared pro-life school officials still might provide students sex advice that didn’t include abortion information.
“Despite this temporary policy victory, it is shocking to see Governor Newsom so blatantly advocate censoring any voices who dissent from the prevailing abortion-first mentality of Planned Parenthood,” Keller said.
