California is inching closer to passing a dangerous pro-abortion bill that mandates free abortions on all public colleges and universities.
State Senate Bill 24 passed the Senate in May, and a final vote in the Assembly is expected later this month. The bill would require all public colleges and universities in California to provide abortion drugs to students on campus for free. The drugs would be offered to students up to 10 weeks of pregnancy beginning Jan. 1, 2023.
Pro-life advocates have been working hard to stop the legislation. They have major concerns about the safety of women, as well as the promotion of unborn babies’ abortion deaths on campuses across the state.
The Catholic News Service reports Catholic Church leaders in the state have a state-wide novena planned for Aug. 3 to 11 to ask for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe to stop the bill.
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco described the bill as “dangerous and unprecedented” and urged people to pray. Joining him in the call to action are Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and the dioceses of San Jose, Stockton, Orange and San Bernardino, according to the report.
Catholic leaders also are encouraging pro-lifers to call and write to their state legislators. More information is available at www.sfarch.org/stop-sb-24.
Bernadette Tasy is among the young Californians advocating against the bill. She is the president of Fresno Pro-Life Future and California state captain for Students for Life Action.
“I am grieved by the carelessness of our representatives who would push forward this reckless bill despite its many problems,” she wrote in a column at The Federalist this week.
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Tasy outlined some of the problems with the bill:
First, the bill author, state Sen. Connie Leyva, continuously argues that the bill is about “access” to abortion and that public university campuses are not in close proximity to abortion pill providers. Most campuses, however, are within just a few miles of these facilities. The bill places the mandate on all 34 campuses, costing millions of dollars for a completely unnecessary program.
Second, although the bill is supposed to save students money for car service transportation to off-campus abortion appointments, the public university systems have stated repeatedly that they will need to raise mandatory student fees to fund this on-campus program. And in California, Medi-Cal patients receive free transportation services to these appointments.
The University of California and the California State University systems also have expressed concerns about the bill. They said they are not prepared to handle the immense costs of providing abortions on campus, according to CBS 13 Sacramento. They pointed to the costs of ultrasound machines, staff training, increased liabilities and more.
Even some abortion supporters oppose the legislation. Former Gov. Jerry Brown, a pro-abortion Democrat, vetoed a very similar bill in 2018, saying the measure was “not necessary” because abortions already are easily accessible to college students.
In his veto message, Brown pointed to a study from the supporters of the bill showing that the average distance to an abortion facility from campus was 5 to 7 miles.
The legislation does not support choices for pregnant and parenting students, either. It supports abortions. Nowhere in the legislation are provisions for students who choose to parent their child. There is no requirement that campuses offer prenatal care to pregnant students or child care to parenting students.
California is one of the most radical states in regards to abortion access. Later term, elective abortions are legal, and girls as young as age 12 can obtain abortions without parental knowledge or consent.
ACTION: Contact California state lawmakers in opposition to the bill.
