The end of session saw the passage of SB 24 (Levya, D-Chino), the bill that would require all UC and CSU campus health care clinics to make abortion medication available to students by state-paid campus staff. The Governor still has to sign the bill before it becomes law.
The CCC vehemently opposed the bill and is immensely grateful for the tens of thousands of opposition letters sent and phone calls members of the network sent and placed to legislators. The next step is to let the Governor know you oppose the bill here.
“The bill is now on Governor Newsom’s desk. We urge him to veto this unprecedented and unnecessary legislation because it purposely narrows a young woman’s choices and puts the state’s prestigious academic institutions in a position of actually promoting, facilitating and potentially funding only abortions,” said Andrew Rivas, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, in a statement.
“College-age women, especially those who face life-changing decisions, such as pregnancy, deserve a safe and supportive environment where they can receive appropriate health care and support, including pregnancy counseling and/or options regarding on-going health care, childcare, housing assistance, moral support and adoption. This bill will promote only abortion-inducing drugs on college campuses,” Rivas said.
Read the entire statement here.
In a released statement, California Catholic Conference President and Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto also weighed in on the pending proposed law, calling the bill and “ideological measure” without any definitive data:
“This has been the consistent pattern of the abortion industry because California chooses not to keep statistics on the use of abortion in the state. Other vital public health statistics, even euthanasia, are more thoroughly recorded and documented than abortion. This lack of information means that the Legislature is acting in the dark, being led by the hand by those fixated on hiding the consequences of abortion on women,” Bishop Soto said.
Read all of Bishop Soto’s statement in its entirety here.