NARAL PRO-CHOICE CALIFORNIA CO-SPONSORED BILLS
Senate Bill 65, California Momnibus: Reimagining Maternal Health, authored by Senator Nancy Skinner
SB 65, the CA Momnibus Act, re-imagines maternal health in order to improve perinatal outcomes, close racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality and morbidity, and improve data collection and research on socioeconomic factors that contribute to negative birth outcomes. Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on October 4, 2021; key elements were also included in the Budget Act of 2021
Senate Bill 245, Abortion Accessibility Act, authored by Senator Lena Gonzalez
SB 245, the Abortion Accessibility Act, removes cost-sharing for abortion care so that no one in California is unable to access care because of the cost of the service. Did you know that many Californians have to pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs to access abortion care? California may lead the nation when it comes to protecting abortion rights, but without access to affordable care, the right to abortion is a right in name only. Status: Made into a 2-year bill in the Asm. Appropriations Committee
Senate Bill 379, Equitable and Inclusive UC Healthcare Act, authored by Senator Scott Wiener
SB 379 ensures that all UC healthcare providers practicing in non-UC facilities are able to provide comprehensive reproductive and LGBTQ-inclusive healthcare. Did you know that the University of California—the 4th largest healthcare provider in California, which trains over 50% of California’s medical students and residents, and treats millions of Californians every year—has entered contracts with hospitals that prohibit UC practitioners and students from providing reproductive and LGBTQ-inclusive healthcare? Reproductive and LGBTQ-inclusive care should not be denied by UC Health. Status: Made into a 2-year bill in the Sen. Appropriations Committee
Senate Bill 523, Contraceptive Equity Act of 2021, authored by Senator Connie Leyva
SB 523 expands and modernizes birth control access in California, and ensure greater contraceptive equity statewide, regardless of an individual’s gender or insurance coverage status. Specifically, SB 523 would make California’s contraceptive equity laws gender neutral; require coverage of over-the-counter birth control options to increase access to time-sensitive care; extend contraceptive coverage benefits to millions of Californians including state workers, university employees, and college students; and clearly prohibit employers from discriminating against their employees based on their contraceptive and reproductive health decisions. Status: Made into a 2-year bill in the Asm. Appropriations Committee
OTHER NARAL PRO-CHOICE CALIFORNIA SCORED BILLS
Assembly Bill 32 authored by Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry (SUPPORT)
AB 32 requires the State Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to extend the telehealth flexibilities in place during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Additionally, AB 32 ensures patients will continue to have access to care by maintaining parity in reimbursement for telehealth services for Medi-Cal managed care plans. Status: Made into a 2-year bill through negotiations
Assembly Bill 123 authored by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez (SUPPORT)
AB 123 increases wage replacement rates for Californians using paid family leave and state disability insurance (SDI). AB 123 would phase in increased wage replacement rates so that by January 2025, low income workers would receive 90% of their regular pay for the first 12 weeks of SDI and for paid family leave, while workers making more would receive 70% of their regular pay up to a cap. Status: Vetoed by Governor Newsom on September 28, 2021
Assembly Bill 366 authored by Assemblymember Blanca Rubio (SUPPORT)
As introduced, AB 366 would have taken various steps to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes for foster youth and non-minor dependents. Status: This bill was gutted and amended with a different purpose in the Senate, and for this reason is only scored in the Assembly
Assembly Bill 367 authored by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (SUPPORT)
AB 367 increases access to menstrual products in public schools maintaining grades 6-12, California State University and community college campuses, and public agency buildings. AB 367 is a critical step toward removing barriers to equity for all Californians who menstruate, especially those who have struggled to access menstrual products due to gender or income. Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on October 8, 2021
Assembly Bill 935 authored by Assemblymember Brian Maienschein (SUPPORT)
AB 935 requires health insurers and plans to develop a provider-to-provider telehealth consultation program to connect primary care providers with experts in maternal or pediatric mental health to enable providers to appropriately diagnose and best treat children and pregnant or postpartum patients experiencing a mental health disorder. Status: Made into a 2-year bill at the decision of the bill author
Assembly Bill 1007 authored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (SUPPORT)
AB 1007 provides reparations to survivors of forced sterilization under California’s eugenics laws from 1909 to 1979; and survivors of involuntary sterilizations in women’s state prisons after 1979. Additionally, AB 1007 establishes an outreach and sterilization notification program in consultation with community-based organizations, raising awareness of the unjust sterilization of thousands of people. Status: Achieved through the state budget on July 12, 2021
Assembly Bill 1041 authored Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (SUPPORT)
AB 1041 expands the group of people for whom employees can take family and sick leave from work by allowing workers to take job-protected time off to care for any “designated person,” essentially “chosen family,” identified by the employee at the time they request family care and medical leave. Status: Made into a 2-year bill
Assembly Bill 1184 authored by Assemblymember David Chiu (SUPPORT)
AB 1184 ensures patient information is protected by establishing automatic confidentiality when accessing sensitive services, and expands the existing definition of “sensitive services” to include gender-affirming care and behavioral health care. Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom September 22, 2021
Assembly Bill 1356 authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (SUPPORT)
AB 1356 strengthens safety and security laws to better protect patients and providers at reproductive health centers by updating the California Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) and modernizing online privacy laws. Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom September 22, 2021
Senate Bill 217 authored by Senator Brian Dahle (OPPOSE)
SB 217 imposes a one-size-fits-all requirement on California’s comprehensive sexual health education instruction, adding unnecessary barriers to the delivery of school-based comprehensive sexual health education. Status: Held in the Senate Appropriations Committee
Senate Bill 306 authored by Senator Richard Pan (SUPPORT)
SB 306 expands access to STI testing remotely at home and in the community, increases access to STI treatment for patients and their partners, and updates state law to boost congenital syphilis screening in the face of alarming increases in maternal-child transmission. Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on October 4, 2021
Senate Bill 374 authored by Senator Dave Min (SUPPORT)
SB 374 provides necessary clarity to California’s definition of domestic violence by adding reproductive coercion to the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (DVPA). Reproductive coercion is experienced by many domestic violence survivors. SB 374 will help to empower domestic survivors to identify the abuse they have experienced. Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on July 23, 2021
NARAL PRO-CHOICE CALIFORNIA SUPPORTED BILLS – ALLIED ISSUES
Assembly Bill 218 authored by Assemblymember Chris Ward (SUPPORT)
AB 218 will enable transgender Californians to update their marriage certificates and birth certificates of their children to accurately reflect their legal name and gender, while still protecting their privacy. Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on October 6, 2021
Assembly Bill 256 authored by Assemblymember Ash Kalra (SUPPORT)
AB 256, the California Racial Justice Act for All, will provide a mechanism for relief for those whose convictions or sentences were based upon race, ethnicity, or national origin. This bill will extend the essential protections of the California Racial Justice Act (AB 2542, 2020) to all Californians. Status: Awaiting a vote on the Sen. Floor.
Assembly Bill 265 authored by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (SUPPORT)
AB 265 would repeal the 80-percent-of-Medicare cap currently imposed on Medi-Cal rates for laboratory services, which would greatly help healthcare clinics that provide on-site lab testing for patients. Status: Made into a 2-year bill in the Sen. Appropriations Committee
Assembly Bill 937 authored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (SUPPORT)
AB 937, the VISION Act (Voiding Inequality and Seeking Inclusion for Our Immigrant Neighbors) will protect community members who have already been deemed eligible for release from being funneled by local jails and our state prison system to immigration detention for deportation. The VISION Act takes urgent and necessary strides toward ensuring that our local and state tax dollars are not used to funnel immigrants into inhumane conditions in immigration detention, violate Constitutional protections, and separate immigrant families and communities. Status: Made into a 2-year bill
Assembly Bill 1119 authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (SUPPORT)
AB 1119 would prohibit discrimination against employees based on their family responsibilities and would provide workers with reasonable accommodations for obligations arising from needing to care for a minor child or care recipient whose school or place of care is closed or otherwise unavailable. Status: Made into a 2-year bill in the Asm. Appropriations Committee
Senate Bill 2 authored by Senator Steven Bradford (SUPPORT)
SB 2, the Kenneth Ross, Jr. Police Decertification Act of 2021, would increase accountability for law enforcement officers that commit serious misconduct and violate civil rights. Specifically, the bill will create a statewide process to revoke professional certificates issued to officers for serious misconduct. Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 30, 2021
Senate Bill 17 authored by Senator Richard Pan (SUPPORT)
SB 17 establishes the Office of Racial Equity and the Racial Equity Advisory and Accountability Council. Establishing an Office of Racial Equity will help the State practice equity; turning our commitment equity into actionable strategies in our immediate response to the crisis of the pandemic, our recovery efforts, and as the world reshapes the global economy. Status: Made into a 2-year bill in the Asm. Appropriations Committee
Senate Bill 300 authored by Senator Dave Cortese (SUPPORT)
SB 300, the Sentencing Reform Act of 2021, will ensure that the death penalty and life in prison without the possibility of parole will not be imposed on a person who did not kill nor intend that a person die during the commission of a felony, such as robbery or burglary. The bill will also address the injustice of mandatory life without parole sentences by restoring to judges the discretion to impose a sentence of life in prison with parole eligibility when it is in the interest of justice to do so. Status: Made into a 2-year bill in the Assembly
Senate Bill 357 authored by Senator Scott Wiener (SUPPORT)
SB 357 would repeal California Penal Code § 653.22, which criminalizes “loitering for the purposes of committing prostitution.” Black adults accounted for 56.1% of the § 653.22 charges in Los Angeles between 2017-2019, despite only making up 8.9% of the city’s population. By repealing § 653.22, SB 357 eliminates a law that allows police to rely on bias rather than evidence to criminalize otherwise legal activities like walking, dressing or standing in public, and results in the harassment of LGTBQ+, Black and Brown communities for simply looking like a “sex worker” to law enforcement. Status: Awaiting Governor Newsom’s signature
Senate Bill 467 authored by Senator Scott Wiener (SUPPORT)
SB 467 creates a phase out of well stimulation treatments and neighborhood drilling while directing the California Geological Energy Management Division (CalGEM) to provide a pathway for workers to transition into oil and gas well remediation jobs. Despite being praised as an international climate leader, California has failed to take meaningful action on oil extraction in our communities. Negative health impacts include a host of pregnancy complications, including increased risk of miscarriage. Status: Died in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee
Senate Bill 503 authored by Senator Josh Becker (SUPPORT)
SB 503 will provide procedures to ensure that election officials count valid mail and provisional ballots and do not improperly reject them during the signature comparison process. Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 27, 2021