Bills Harming CA Families Nearing Final Stage

The California legislature is set to return to the state capitol from summer recess in a few weeks to make final decisions on over a dozen bad bills harmful to California communities. The California Family Council opposes 16 bills that threaten the unborn, parental rights, freedom of speech and religion, and encourage racism, drug abuse, sex trafficking, and assisted suicide. 

Earlier in the year, the legislature killed bills promoting religious liberty and providing sex education transparency, while pushing off until next year a bill to protect children from sex abusers. Most of the bills CFC is opposing made it through the legislative house they were introduced in, cleared the policy committee of the second house, and now sit in the Appropriation Committees of the Senate and the Assembly. Once legislators return to the Capitol on August 16, these bills have to make it to the legislative floor for a vote and then to the governor’s desk by the end of the session on September 10th or they are dead for the year.

Contact Your Elected Representative!

Make sure your elected representatives know how you feel about these bills. The California Family Council makes that easy. Just visit our new Action Center. We give you a brief overview of some of these bills and connect you to your legislators with a click of a button.  It is very simple and only takes a few minutes. Try it out. 

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. This bill is currently in the Senate Appropriation Committee with a hearing date set for August 16th. 

AB 1040: Ethnic Studies in community colleges: This bill to require each community college to offer courses in ethnic studies at each of its campuses was stalled. It might be revived next year, but it is more likely the bill is now unnecessary since on July 13th the Community Colleges Board of Governors announced they would require community college students seeking an associate degree to complete a course in ethnic studies. As mentioned previously, Ethnic Studies is a course infused with Critical Race Theory that creates resentment and prejudice between students with different ethnicities and sexual identities. 

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 canonized saint 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, according to the bill text, 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 should happen without giving in to mobs that use vandalism to argue their point of view. Watch CFC‘s interview for more information. The bill is waiting to be voted on by the full Senate when they return in August. 

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 children’s items and toys. The bill, sponsored by a gender-neutral fashion designer, would only apply to retail stores with 500 or more employees statewide 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. This bill is currently in the Senate Appropriation Committee with a hearing date set for August 16th. 

Join the CFC Call-in Campaign and urge your State Senator to vote no on AB 1084. 

AB 1184: Requires 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 who is providing their child medical services and what those services entail. Click here for a list of medical services California minors can currently consent to without parental knowledge or approval. This bill is currently in the Senate Appropriation Committee with a hearing date set for August 16th. 

Join the CFC Call-in Campaign and urge your State Senator to vote no on AB 1184. 

AB 1356: Increases penalties for photographing and videoing abortion workers: Although CFC doesn’t believe it is right to try and intimidate abortion workers by posting their pictures online, the bill is written broad enough to prevent pro-life sidewalk counselors from videotaping and taking photos of their own work for their own protection. Strangely enough, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is also in opposition because of free speech concerns. 

This bill is currently in the Senate Appropriation Committee with a hearing date set for August 16th. 

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. The bill is currently in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. A hearing has not been scheduled yet.

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. This bill is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. A hearing is expected in mid-August. 

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. This bill is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. A hearing is expected in mid-August. 

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 damage done to people by enabling illegal drug use, and the negative effects that illegal drugs have on the health of the community. Read more information here. SB 57 passed the Senate, but was held in the Assembly Health Committee with a hearing expected in January of next year. 

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. This bill is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. A hearing is expected in mid-August. 

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. There would be an exception for high deductible insurance plans. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Trump Administration determined California was already breaking federal law by forcing all private health insurance plans to include coverage for abortion. Now that Xavier Becerra is running HHS under the Biden Administration, California legislators are flaunting the federal law even more with this legislation. Read more details here.

This bill is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. A hearing is expected in mid-August. Join the CFC Call-in Campaign and urge your State Senator to vote no on SB 245. 

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 reason for 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 details here. 

This bill is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. A hearing is expected in mid-August. 

SB 363: Forces Boys State and Girls State to let teens determine their sex: This bill requires American Legion, who runs the Boys State conferences, and the American Legion Auxiliary, who runs the Girls State conferences, to operate their civic engagement program for youth within the Capitol and with public school districts only if the programs determine a student’s sex by gender identity and not biology. State legislators shouldn’t be forcing private organizations to give up their beliefs about the biological nature of sex.

This bill is ready to be voted on by the full Assembly when they return to the Capitol on August 16th. 

SB 380: Removing safeguards from assisted suicide law: California’s assisted suicide law passed in 2015 had some safeguarded 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. SB 380 reduces the waiting period to 48 hours. 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.

This bill is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. A hearing is expected in mid-August. Join the CFC Call-in Campaign and urge your State Senator to vote no on SB 380. 

SB 519: Decriminalization of LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs: This bill will legalize dangerous psychedelic drugs for personal use, 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. This bill is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. A hearing is expected in mid-August. 

Join the CFC Call-in Campaign and urge your State Senator to vote no on SB 519. 

SB 742: No picketing vaccination sites: This bill would, among other things, prohibit anyone from harassing and intimidating someone going to get a vaccine.  The bill has changed quite a bit since it was introduced. The bill originally threatened pro-life work done outside abortion clinics, because Planned Parenthood offers vaccines and the bill defined harassment as handing out fliers and holding signs regarding alternatives to abortions. But the bill was changed and now only prohibits handing out fliers, holding signs, and trying to educate people with an anti-vaccination message. More specifically it prevents anyone from getting within 30 feet of someone going into a medical center from getting “harrassed” with anti-vaccination messages. 

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, so the bill is not likely to survive a court challenge. 

 This bill is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. A hearing is expected mid-August.