The California Assembly plans to consider an extreme pro-abortion bill Tuesday that pro-life leaders say could legalize infanticide as well as expand abortions.
In an alert Monday, the California Family Council described state Assembly Bill 2223 as the “most extreme anti-life bill California has ever seen,” and warned that the state legislature is advancing it quickly. The state Assembly Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing on the legislation Tuesday.
Sponsored by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, the bill would eliminate all civil and criminal penalties for “people’s actual, potential or alleged pregnancy outcomes.”
The bill would not allow authorities to charge a mother for “actions or omissions” related to her pregnancy, “including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death.” Anyone who “aids or assists a pregnant person” also would be exempt from prosecution. Additionally, the bill would allow the woman to sue police and other authorities who arrest or charge her in such cases.
The “perinatal death” language in the bill could exempt mothers who kill their newborn babies from prosecution, according to the California Family Council.
ACTION ALERT: Contact California Assembly members to oppose this radical legislation.
“Although definitions of ‘perinatal death’ vary, all of them include the demise of newborns seven days or more after birth. Some definitions extend from weeks after birth up to a year,” the pro-life organization said.
Lawyer Wesley J. Smith came to a similar conclusion after analyzing bill, saying the language does not just apply to unborn babies. He pointed to another section of the bill that mentions “postpartum care,” which occurs after birth.
Smith compared the legislation to another bill introduced in Maryland earlier this year that would decriminalize neglecting an infant to death during the “perinatal” period.
“I was interviewed on several talk-radio programs and was asked what the sponsor was thinking. My most charitable thought was that he was unaware of the definition of ‘perinatal,’” Smith said.
After the outrage and attention to the Maryland bill, however, Smith said the California lawmakers cannot use the same excuse.
“One blue-state bill that would allow a born baby to be neglected to death might be an anomaly,” he said. “A second that does that — and perhaps could be interpreted to allow infanticide, also — is a pattern. The cultural Left is blazing new grounds of depravity.”
The California Future of Abortion Council, a coalition that Gov. Gavin Newsom established last year, supports the bill.
ACTION ALERT: Contact California Assembly members to oppose this radical legislation.
