California is being overrun with bad bills

The California Family Council (CFC) has been overwhelmed this year with the number of harmful bills being introduced by California legislators. We have 17 bills we oppose that threaten the unborn, parental rights, freedom of speech and religion, and encourage racism, drug abuse, sex trafficking, and assisted suicide. 

The bills we supported this year to promote religious liberty, provide sex education transparency, and protect children from sex abusers are dead or pushed off until next year. Most of the 17 bills CFC is opposing made it through the committee process in the legislative house they were introduced. And now over the next two weeks, 40 members of the State Senate and the 80 members of the Assembly have to vote on these and hundreds of other bills before the June 4 deadline, if they are going to survive and make it to the other legislative house for consideration. 

We have 17 bills we oppose that threaten the unborn, parental rights, freedom of speech and religion, and encourage racism, drug abuse, sex trafficking, and assisted suicide. 

Education yourself on these bills and reach out to your representatives. They need to know where you stand. If you love your neighbors, then don’t be silent when your representatives try to hurt them with harmful legislation.   

AB 101: Mandatory Ethnic Studies Courses for High School Students: This bill will mandate high school students take a course in “ethnic studies” in order to graduate high school. The curriculum is infused with Critical Race Theory meant to create resentment among non-white students, and guilt and shame among white students. Lessons falsely tell students to feel guilty for crimes done by long-dead figures with the same color skin. The curriculum seeks to pit ethnic groups and those with various sexual and gender identities against each other. It also encourages teens to judge people not by the content of their character, but by the racial or sexual identity group they belong to.  Read more about the curriculum here.

AB 338: Replace the statue of Father Junipero Serra with a monument to the California Native people of Sacramento. Last year a mob torched and pulled down a statue of Father Junipero Serra, the Catholic priest credited with establishing the mission system in California in the 1700s. Caving to the demands of the mob, this bill would remove a legal requirement to have a statue honoring the Father’s work among the Indians. In its place will be a monument to Native Americans that will highlight the devastating impact the mission period had on them and the role Father Serra had in that devastation. CFC is all for an honest portrayal of historical figures, but believes that debate can happen without giving in to mobs that use vandalism to argue their point of view. Watch CFC interview for more information.

AB 1040: Ethnic Studies in community colleges. This bill would require each community college to offer courses in ethnic studies at each of its campuses. As mentioned previously, Ethnic Studies is a Critical Race Theory course of study meant to create resentment and prejudice between students with different ethnicities and sexual identities. 

AB 1084: Gender-neutral section requirement for big-box stores. This bill would punish companies with fines if they don’t create a gender-neutral section for kids’ toys and clothing. The law, sponsored by a gender-neutral fashion designer, would only apply to retail stores with 500 or more employees and demand that the gender-neutral section include a “reasonable selection” of items without any store signage labeling the items for boys or girls. The first violation is $250 or $500 for subsequent violations. Read this article for more information. 

AB 1184: Require Insurance companies to keep secrets from parents: This Planned Parenthood sponsored bill will force insurance companies to hide from parents “sensitive” medical procedures given to their adult and minor children. These “sensitive” services include abortion, sexual assault treatment, drug abuse and mental health treatment, and cross-sex hormones and sex-change operations. The bill prevents parents from finding out from an insurance statement that their child is receiving services from medical providers like Planned Parenthood. In California, a minor can get an abortion at any age without parental knowledge or consent. 

ACA 2: Constitutional amendment to eliminate the death penalty:  This bill would prohibit the death penalty from being imposed as a punishment for any violations of law, even for the most heinous mass murderers with overwhelming evidence of guilt. This bill would have to be approved by a vote of the people. 

SB 2: Police lose jobs over “bias” acts: This bill would, among other things, redefine “serious misconduct” for which a police officer might lose their job. The new definition states: “Acts demonstrating bias on the basis of race, national origin, religion, gender identity or expression, housing status, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, or other protected status in violation of law.” Acts of “bias” is a very vague term and easily manipulable, because it involves not just conduct, but speech regarding personal religious, philosophical, or political views. Read a legal analysis here. 

SB 17: Office of Racial Equity: This bill will create an independent office of racial equity that would develop a Racial Equity Framework to create policies and practices to promote racial equity, and address individual, institutional, and structural racism. The bill assumes all inequity in the United States between racial, sexual orientation, or gender groups is the result of racism built into the system. Though vague in details, the bill implies that racial equity will not be achieved by supporting policies that judge someone based on individual character and merit without concern for race, gender, or sexual orientation. Instead, equity will only be achieved with policies that give special preferences to individuals based on the racial, gender, or sexual orientation group they belong to. 

SB 57: Illegal drug injection sites: This bill would start a pilot program in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles where centers would be set up so drug addicts can use illicit drugs under medical supervision. The idea is to prevent drug addicts from overdosing, but ignores the effects of enabling the devastating effects of illegal drugs on the body, and the negative effects that illegal drugs have on the health of the community. Read more information here. 

SB 70: Mandatory kindergarten: This bill requires a child to have completed one year of kindergarten before that child may be admitted to the first grade. This bill violates parental rights and assumes parents don’t have the wisdom to decide if their child is ready for schooling or not. Read more here. 

SB 73: Lowering penalties on drug dealers. This bill will end mandatory minimum sentencing requirements for many drug offenses. This might be justified for non-violent drug possession charges, but lowering penalties for drug dealers is not justified, especially when they are selling substances like heroin and methamphetamine that kill people and destroy communities. This is part of Sen. Wiener’s plan to legalize all illicit drugs. Read more about his plans here. 

SB 245: Forcing health insurance plans to pay for free abortions: This bill forces all private insurance policies to cover abortions with no co-pays and no deductibles, despite the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) determination that California was already breaking federal law by forcing private health insurance plans to include coverage for abortion. There would be an exception for high deductible insurance plans. Read more here. 

SB 357: Legalizes loitering for prostitution:  This bill doesn’t legalize prostitution, but gets rid of a law that gives police the ability to deal with obvious prostitution happening on neighborhood streets. According to Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva, the “underlying root” of the “loitering with the intent to commit prostitution” law is to “target sex buyers who seek to exploit” women and men. This law will harm police efforts to prevent human trafficking from happening out in the open on any neighborhood street. The bill is sponsored by the ACLU and authored by Senator Scott Wiener, both proponents of legalizing prostitution. Read more here. 

SB 363: Forces Boys State and Girls State to accept “non-binary” teens: This bill requires American Legion, who runs the Boys State conferences, and the American Legion Auxiliary, who runs the Girls State conferences, to only operate their civic engagement program for youth within the Capitol and with public school districts if both allow pupils, who do not identify as either male or female, to apply to either conference. State legislators shouldn’t be forcing private organizations to give up their beliefs about the biological nature of sex.

SB 380: Removing safeguards from assisted suicide law: California’s assisted suicide law passed in 2015 had some safeguards added that the bill author, Senator Susan Eggman, now wants to remove. First, the bill’s sunset date of 2025 will be removed after only four years of published annual reports by the California Department of Public Health. The sunset date was put in the original bill to allow the legislature to reevaluate the law’s impact using a decade of data. Second, patients will no longer have to make two oral requests for suicide drugs with a 15-day waiting period between requests as is currently required. This safeguard was added to make sure patients weren’t making impulsive decisions or being subject to coercion of any kind. Read more bill details here.

SB 519: Decriminalization of LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs: This bill will legalize dangerous psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, Magic Mushrooms, and Ecstasy for those over 21. It would also eliminate laws against the cultivation, transfer, or transportation of these drugs and the paraphernalia used to take these drugs. Read more about the damaging effects of these drugs here and here. 

SB 742: No picketing vaccination sites: This bill would, among other things, prohibit protest activities within 300 feet of a medical office or temporary location doing vaccinations. The U.S. Supreme Court has already struck down a Massachusetts law that created a 35 feet buffer zone around the entrance of an abortion clinic. Peaceful protests and sidewalk counseling in front of abortion clinics could be affected by SB 742, with abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood now distributing vaccinations.