California Legislative Updates

Prop 1 is Officially Law!

History was made as Prop 1 overwhelmingly passed, and California became the first state to explicitly enshrine abortion and contraception into our state’s constitution. Together we have sent a loud and clear message that when our reproductive rights are on the line, we fight back with everything we’ve got. On December 21st the ballot measure officially went into effect.

Senate President pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, who authored SCA 10, which became Prop 1, recognized the moment. “As the ink dries on SCA 10, one message is loud and clear: in California, abortion and access to contraception are rights, and a conversation that will remain where it belongs — between an individual and their provider,” she said in a statement. 

The proposition came about in direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. And while the right to abortion is no longer a constitutionally protected right at the federal level, Prop 1 passed with nearly 67% of the statewide vote, enshrining protections into our state’s constitution for vital healthcare services that everyone – no matter who they are, or where in California they live – deserves. 

California Future of Abortion (FAB) Council Releases Update to Historic Report on Protecting and Expanding Access to Abortion

The CA FAB Council continues to build on the work it started last year and has produced additional recommendations to improve the provision of and access to essential abortion services and information statewide. 

In addition to the ongoing work from last year’s report, the CA FAB Council has identified the below listed additional policy recommendations to improve access to abortion care, support abortion providers, and address gaps in abortion access in the health care system. 

These recommendations reflect areas of ongoing advocacy to ensure proper implementation of actions taken in the past year as well as new issues that have been identified post-Dobbs by stakeholders who are directly seeing the impacts of abortion bans on providers, patients, and support networks in California.

This past fall and winter, members of the CA FAB Council met to identify 16 additional recommendations California policymakers can pursue in the upcoming legislative session to achieve the CA FAB Council’s seven overarching areas of focus (in no particular order):

• Increase investments in abortion funds, direct practical support, and infrastructure to support patients seeking abortion care.
• Ensure cost is not a barrier to care and reimbursement for abortion and abortion-related services is adequate and timely.
• Invest in a diverse California abortion provider workforce and increase training opportunities for BIPOC and others historically excluded from health care professions.
• Reduce administrative and institutional barriers to abortion care.
• Strengthen legal protections for abortion patients, providers, and supporting organizations and individuals.
• Meaningfully address misinformation and disinformation and ensure that access to medically accurate, culturally relevant and inclusive education about abortion and access to care is widely and equitably available.
• Support efforts to collect data, conduct research, and distribute reports to assess and information abortion care and education needs in California.

Below are the 16 additional recommendations the CA FAB Council made in expansion of last year’s report: 

1. Monitor disbursement of state funding for sexual and reproductive health, the rate at which the funds are disbursed and spent, and barriers to getting funds to organizations to support their work.
2. Continue to identify gaps in funding or additional needs to support California’s abortion network.
3. Ensure meaningful implementation of the Abortion Practical Support Fund.
4. Align Medi-Cal coverage of medication abortion with evidence-based clinical guidelines.
5. Update Medi-Cal policies to improve access to mifepristone and misoprostol.
6. Improve access to long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) for those seeking abortion services.
7. Provide ongoing funding of Medi-Cal abortion equity and infrastructure payments and expand eligibility to include additional safety net abortion providers.
8. Clarify Presumptive Eligibility for Pregnant Individuals (currently called PE4PW) coverage policies and ensure PE4PW patients can access abortion services regardless of other health coverage.
9. Secure ongoing and adequate funding for the Reproductive Health Service Corps.
10. Ensure that medical malpractice insurance includes coverage for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care.
11. Provide additional safeguards for California abortion providers and other entities and individuals that serve and support abortion patients that reside in states with hostile abortion laws.
12. Enhance privacy protections for medical records related to abortion, pregnancy loss, and other sensitive services through electronic health record sharing and health information exchanges.
13. Provide privacy protections for digital data related to patients accessing abortion services in California.
14. Protect abortion patients, providers, and those that support them by ensuring that their identities remain confidential and are not publicly disclosed. 
15. Regularly update and maintain the state abortion website to ensure that it offers current, accurate, comprehensive, and inclusive information. 
16. Fund a statewide campaign to address harmful misinformation and services by crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs).

Every day, people across the country – and even here in California – continue to face life-altering barriers to care. We all must continue to take meaningful action to implement these recommendations and ensure abortion is available and equitably accessible to all in California. To read the FAB Council’s recommendations in more detail, click here.