SACRAMENTO, CA – Abortion providers, advocates, and pro-abortion legislators released a comprehensive plan this week to turn California into an abortion sanctuary for the entire country in anticipation of the Supreme Court overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Not only does the released report propose making golden state taxpayers pay for abortions for those coming from other states, but it recommends reimbursing their abortion-related expenses for travel, lodging, child care, and lost wages as well.
The report details 45 legislative recommendations from a group of over 40 abortion rights organizations Governor Gavin Newsom helped pull together called the California Future of Abortion Council. The document also includes, in the first few pages, a signed support letter from California Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins, a former abortion industry executive. “I spent the early part of my career working for a women’s health clinic, and served as a director of clinical services,” stated Atkins’s letter referencing her previous work for a San Diego abortion clinic. “I talked directly with women who had found their way to our clinic for assistance because they lived in states with restricted access. … We can’t afford to let extremists turn back the clock on our rights.”
California pro-life organizations, on the other hand, are appalled that California leaders would further exalt abortion to such an elevated status when the state already has some of the most pro-abortion policies in the world.
“The worship-like adoration California’s legislative leaders give to abortion defiles all reason,” said Greg Burt, Director of Capitol Engagement with the California Family Council. “I don’t think Californians want their state to be known as the nation’s abortion headquarters and I’m sure they don’t want to fund the country’s abortions. Our state leaders should be supporting motherhood and childbearing, not funding the killing of the next generation and treating pregnancy like a life-threatening disease that has to be cured no matter what the cost.”
Yet the ambitious plans put forth by the California Future of Abortion Council push far past just the funding of abortions. The report includes a wish list of provisions that, if implemented, would make abortion the most funded, protected, promoted, and facilitated medical procedure in the country.
If enacted, these provisions would send a moral message to the world that Californians believe nothing is more important than abortion; more important than finding a cure for cancer, more important than fighting sex trafficking, more important than dealing with the state’s rampant drug overdoes, homelessness, or crime problems, and definitely more important than ensuring children, no matter the circumstances of their birth, are welcomed and supported.
Here are some of the other provisions included in the California Future of Abortion Council proposal:
- California should pay for 1.4 million abortions for non-state residents: The Chart on page 5 of the report anticipates a 2923% increase in the number of “women who may drive to California for abortion care.” In actual numbers that means the current “46,000” estimated people coming to California for abortions will increase to 1.4 million.” The report proposes California taxpayers will foot the bill for all of these.
- California should pay for associated costs surrounding abortion: The report requests the state provide funding to abortion organizations and providers in order to give “practical support for [abortion] patients such as gas, lodging, transportation, child care, doula support, food, lost wages, etc.” (page 6)
- California should make abortions free for everyone: The report requests legislators force private insurance companies to cover abortion with no deductibles or co-pays, SB 245 (a bill pending in the CA legislature), and provide those lacking insurance additional subsidies and programs to fund abortion procedures. (page 7)
- Make late-term abortions easier: The report wants the legislature to “address existing barriers to abortion care later in pregnancy.” It is horrifying to think about what this might entail for unborn children old enough to survive outside the womb. (page 10)
- Pressure faith-based hospitals into the abortion business and more: The report insists that religiously affiliated hospitals must give patients “a full spectrum of health care, including abortions, contraception, miscarriage management, and gender-affirming care [sex change operations, and sterilizing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors and adults].” (page 10)
- Legal protection for do-it-yourself abortionists: The report wants to protect abortion patients “as well as those who assist them… from criminal liability for those exercising their right [to abortion] under California Law.” This provision will leave women vulnerable to abuse and harm from untrained, non-licensed abortionists? (page 11)
- Eliminate consequences for women who harm their unborn children with illicit drugs: The report asks the legislature to protect women from being prosecuted for hurting or killing their unborn children with harmful illegal drugs. (page 11)
- Make sure insurance companies hide minor abortions from parents: The report encourages the state to prosecute insurance company’s who don’t comply with a new law, AB 1184, which prohibits insurance companies from revealing to the policyholder the “sensitive” services of anyone on their policy, including minor children, even though the policy owner is financially responsible for the services.
These “sensitive” services include abortions, sexual assault treatment, drug abuse and mental health treatment, cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and sex-change operations. In California, minors can consent to all of these sensitive treatments, except for sex-change surgeries, after the age of 12 under certain conditions, and consent to abortions at any age. (page 11) - Pro-life pregnancy centers targeted for persecution: These centers provide women with life-affirming alternatives to abortion, resources, and additional medical services and support, and they outnumber abortion clinics in California by 20 percent. The report asks the legislature to “take meaningful action to combat and mitigate the harmful and misleading information,” pro-life pregnancy clinics allegedly give out. The US Supreme Court already invalidated a California law several years ago that tried to force pro-life centers to communicate pro-abortion messages. (page 11)
- Use the California Healthy Kids Survey to gather personal information about students’ sex lives and beliefs: The report asks that a special set of “sexual and reproductive health-related questions,” be added to the survey all in the name of helping to “improve student academic performance” and “overall health and wellness.” (page 12)
