CRUCIAL LIFE ISSUES BILLS of 2003

December 2003

            The following bills of the California State Legislature deal with crucial life issues of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia or cloning. For each bill a brief analysis and the pro-life voting position are given. The principle analyst for each bill is shown: CLC (California Life Coalition), CPLC (California ProLife), CRTL (California Right to Life), LPN (Life Priority Network), or SIB (Scholl Institute of Bioethics). The final disposition of each bill is stated.

SENATE BILLS

SB 2 (Burton - D), Health Care Coverage - OPPOSE
          Promotes universal health insurance with uniform employer health care coverage that would substantially expand the number of Californians with state mandated and controlled health care coverage.  The author states that the measure would "create a level playing field for all businesses in California."  The state will dictate all coverage while requiring the private sector business owners to pay for it, which will include family planning and abortion services. - CRTL.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

SB 53 (Chesbro - D), 2003-04 Budget - OPPOSE
            See AB 1765, Budget Act of 2003, for opposition rationale. Five amendments to SB 53 were offered to restrict abortion funding but were tabled by Democrat party-line vote. - LPN.   
         Completely revised and rewritten as a bill on Public Employees' Retirement.

SB 71 (Kuehl - D), Ed: sexual health and HIV/AIDS prevention instruction - OPPOSE
            SB 71 would amend, revise, and repeal major portions of the California Education Code that deal with sex education, and replace it with a consolidated sexual health and HIV/AIDS prevention education act. SB 71 proposes to teach that abstinence from sexual intercourse is the only certain way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (as is presently written into the Ed Code), but then to provide information on other methods of preventing pregnancy. These other methods are not described, but typically include contraceptives, condoms, 'outercourse', alternative lifestyles, and when all else fails, abortion. SB 71 requires some form of sex education from grades K-12, inclusive. - LPN.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

SB 133 (Battin - R), Human cloning - SUPPORT
           The California Health and Safety Code prohibits human reproductive cloning. As defined therein, "human reproductive cloning means the creation of a human fetus," which is that stage of development that begins at an individual's eighth week of life.  Thus, "human reproductive cloning" by default allows the creation of, experimentation on, and killing of human beings before their eighth week of life. SB 133 would remove "human reproductive cloning" from the Health and Safety Code and would prohibit cloning a human being with no exceptions. - LPN.
        Failed in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

SB 139 (Brulte - R), Abandoned newborns: safe-surrender - SUPPORT
           SB 139 offers helpful technical amendments to the Safe Arms for Newborns statute successfully authored by Senator Brulte in 2000. The original statute allows for surrender of a baby up to 72 hours old with anonymity and without fear of prosecution for abandonment.  SB 139 would allow for safe surrender of the child to sites as designated by county boards of supervisors, rather than to designated individuals at the sites, and requires that safe-surrender sites post signs informing the public of this confidential option.  - CPLC.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

SB 142 (Alpert - D), Medi-Cal to Healthy Families Accelerated Enrollment - OPPOSE
           Would accelerate enrollment of an estimated 42,000 children each year who are below age 19 into the Medi-Cal program, which provides full reproductive services including contraceptives and abortion without parental notification or consent. This is an induction program that family planners and abortionists will love. - LPN.
   Held in the Senate Appropriations Committee under submission.

SB 267 (Knight - R), Abstinence Education - SUPPORT
           Promotes abstinence as the only assured successful method of preventing unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Directs the State Department of Health Services to develop an abstinence education program in a manner to maximize federal financial participation. - CRTL.
        Failed in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.    

SB 322 (Ortiz - D), Stem cell research proposals - OPPOSE
           Existing law permits the derivation of human embryonic stem cells and human embryonic germ cells, both of which necessitate killing a human being in the embryonic stage of development. This bill would establish a stem cell institutional review board to review and approve proposals for stem cell research projects. No review board can justify the killing of innocent human beings and this bill would provide a false legitimacy for research that does so. Note: The bill as sent to the Governor contained a flaw that made it unworkable as written- LPN.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

SB 473 (Florez - D), Public schools: State School Health Advisory Council - OPPOSE
          Superintendent of Public Instruction would establish a State School Health Advisory Council to recommend school health services as well as school nursing services. $144,000 would be available for involving members of the education and health groups. Such groups would include youth groups, HMOs, and California Assembly of School-Based Health Care. They will determine what services are appropriate to the school venue and what nursing services should be required.  Consider the movement to make contraceptives available on school grounds under the auspices of nurses and perhaps even medical personnel assistants. - CRTL.
        Hearing canceled at the request of the author.  

SB 490 (Alpert - D), Pharmacy: prescriptions - OPPOSE
           This bill would authorize pharmacists to furnish emergency contraceptive drug therapy in accordance with a protocol approved by the California State Board of Pharmacy and the Medical Board of California as an alternative to developing a protocol with an authorized prescriber who is acting within his or her scope of practice. Hence, it expands the ability of pharmacists to furnish emergency contraceptives. It also requires the pharmacist to receive specified training before furnishing this drug therapy. The fundamental problems are that emergency contraceptive drugs are abortifacient and pharmacist training, which can be as little as 1 hour, does not equip the pharmacist with an ability to clinically assess the condition of the contraceptive user. - LPN.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

SB 545 (Speier - D), Emergency contraceptive drug therapy - OPPOSE
            This bill would eliminate the requirement to train pharmacists before they could initiate emergency contraceptive drug therapy. It further reduces the medical standards for chemical abortions and permits administering a drug regimen with no prior physical examination or medical background assessment of the woman. Emergency contraception prevents implantation of the embryo into the uterus and thus kills that developing human being. SB 545 would force a pharmacy that participates in the state Medi-Cal program to offer emergency contraceptives even against the moral objection of employed pharmacists. - LPN. 
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

SB 771 (Ortiz - D), Human cells: embryo registry: egg cell donation - OPPOSE
            This bill would put California state government in the stem cell and cloning research business. Contrary to federal policy which prohibits federal funding of embryonic stem cell research and has discontinued federal research involving the killing of human embryos, and which likely will stop human cloning, SB 771 establishes a state research plan to enhance commercial, academic, and governmental expansion in all of these research areas. This proposed rebuff of federal policy explicitly deals with human embryos and oocytes (human eggs), creating a state-run repository for them from which they are given to "any Californian resident who submits an [acceptable] research plan." 
            The bill also forces physicians, under threat of being charged with unprofessional conduct if non-compliant, to provide fertility patients with information on how to donate eggs and embryos to the state repository. SB 771 seeks human egg donors despite acknowledging the "risk of decreased fertility and risks associated with using drugs, medication and hormones prescribed for ovarian stimulation during the oocyte donation process." - LPN.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

SB 778 (Ortiz - D), Biomedical Research and Development Act of 2004 - OPPOSE
            President Bush had banned, after August 9, 2001, the federal funding of stem cell research that involves human embryos. SB 778 seeks California bonds to fund California research for regenerative medical therapies, which relies heavily on human embryos and clones and ultimately results in killing these human beings. This proposed Biomedical Research and Development Act of 2004 is a fiscal ploy to use California taxpayers to fund an immoral program, much like using taxpayers to fund abortion through the state Medi-Cal program. - LPN.
        Held in the Senate Appropriations Committee under submission.

SB 932 (Bowen - D), Non-profit corporations, health facilities - OPPOSE
            This bill would prohibit the Attorney General from consenting to a health facility agreement or transaction if the seller restricts the type or level of medical services that may be provided at the health facility by the buyer. Hence, a church-affiliated non-profit hospital that does not do abortions could not sell or otherwise dispose of its assets if it does so with the proviso that abortions not be performed by the buyer. This is an attack on religious beliefs and private property. - LPN.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

ASSEMBLY BILLS

AB 9 (Dymally - D), Urban Community Health Institute - OPPOSE
           This bill addresses the issue of "health disparities."  In the process of identifying these "disparities" or inequalities in certain populations, community-based organizations and partnerships become an integral component.  One objective is to strengthen "partnerships among community-based organizations in multicultural areas...."   Planned Parenthood is a member of the California Primary Care Association that is affiliated with the Pacific West Cluster of the Health Disparities Collaborative.  Planned Parenthood is active in minority neighborhoods promoting abortion and family planning services. - CRTL.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis. 

AB 100 (Oropeza - D), 2003-04 Budget - OPPOSE
           See AB 1765, Budget Act of 2003, for opposition rationale. - LPN. 
        Assembly motion made to reconsider.

AB 267 (Mullin - D), Cloning: humans - OPPOSE
            This bill would remove one of two definitions of human cloning which were part of the phony ban on human cloning passed by the California Legislature last year (SB 1230 - Alpert). AB 267 would delete the prohibition against cloning a human being and would permit human cloning, experimentation and tissue harvesting until the age of 8 weeks when the clone technically becomes a fetus, after which the clone would not be allowed to live. The bill also permits un-elected bureaucrats to change regulations on defining human reproductive cloning which could result in increasing the maximum age of clones before being killed. - CPLC/LPN.
        Assembly Health Committee hearing cancelled by the bill author. 

AB 368 (Chan - D), Healthy Families Program: LEA billing option - OPPOSE
            Under this bill, family planning and abortion services for minors without parental consent will be facilitated more easily.  Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) would be entitled to receive reimbursement for health services during school through the Healthy Families Program.  Young women, who may be involved in unplanned pregnancies, are very vulnerable to school personnel who might suggest an abortion.  Abortions could then be obtained through a school-linked health center with reimbursement from public dollars. This process does not assure parental involve-ment and could replace parents with the school and its personnel as substitute parents. - CRTL.
        Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing cancelled by the bill author.

AB 561 (Lieber - D), Family planning: teen pregnancy - OPPOSE
           AB 561 would permanently embed numerous Planned Parenthood programs within the Office of Family Planning (OFP), specifically, their TeenSMART Program, Male Involvement Program, Community Challenge Grants Program, and the Information and Education Program. The OFP has long been a conduit of funding for the abortion trade, especially Planned Parenthood. The author's office stated that by codifying these programs, the state will ensure that the structure of these programs is maintained in the future, without mandating funding. - LPN.
           Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

AB 930 (Mountjoy - R), Sexual abuse - SUPPORT
            This bill would require medical personnel, including abortionists and their assistants, to report to authorities minor girls who are pregnant or who have a sexually transmitted disease. These conditions imply that a criminal offense may have occurred. Usually the male involved is an adult who lures or coerces minor girls into sexual intimacy. The abortion industry uses confidentiality as an excuse for not reporting this statutory rape. The criminal act is then covered up by an abortion that kills the baby, devastates the girl, and lets the predator go free to prey on other victims.
            Two contrary laws are at the crux of the current problem: 1) the need to report and prosecute the infraction of law and 2) patient confidentiality which prevents reporting the infraction. The California Attorney General has given legal advice to the California Medical Board at their request and they have essentially absolved the medical profession of reporting unless certain other information about the girl and man involved is known or determined. AB 930 would clarify the issue and relieve doctors of a policing investigator's role presumed by the Medical Board. - LPN.
        Changed by bill author to a two-year bill to be considered in January 2004.

AB 996 (Wiggins - D), Insurance - OPPOSE
           This bill amends the penal code to include bombing and arson of abortion clinics and other facilities as terrorism punishable by state imprisonment and fine. Then in a section unrelated to bombing and arson, terrorism is redefined by the bill to include the following language:
            "As used in this section, "terrorizing" means to cause a person of ordinary emotions and sensibilities to fear for personal safety and includes the systematic harassment of medical personnel working at a health facility licensed under Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 1250) of the Health and Safety Code, or any place where medical care is provided by a licensed health care professional, that provides abortion services."
            The qualification that the abortionist must feel fear is subjective, over-broad, and susceptible to abuse by abortionists. Pro-life protestors who engage in legal picketing activities (such as residential picketing, for example, an activity routinely characterized as harassment by many abortionists) could be reclassified as terrorists under this bill. Since State and Federal laws already exist that criminalize bombings and arsons, this bill is unnecessary and potentially chilling to the First Amendment rights of pro-lifers. - CLC.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

AB 1109 (Maddox - R), Justifiable homicide: defense of a fetus - SUPPORT
           Would add the word "fetus" to existing law to enable necessary force to protect the pre-born child from wrongful injury. -  CRTL.
        Re-referred to Assembly Committee on Judiciary.

AB 1041 (Runner - R), Parental consent for release from school - SUPPORT
           This bill would require parental consent prior to releasing a student from school. Many schools allow students to leave school grounds without parental knowledge or permission for confidential medical services which include counseling, access to contraceptives and abortion. - CPLC.
        Failed in the Assembly Health Committee.

AB 1166 (Berg - D), Residential facilities: terminally ill persons. -- OPPOSE
           This bill allows residential facilities to not call emergency services (911) for inpatients that are receiving hospice services.  If the patient is truly terminally ill as defined by the original hospice entry requirements and is fully informed, then it is appropriate not to request emergency services at the time of impending death occurring in the expected course of the terminal illness.
            There is, however, a proviso (5f) that the facility "need not call emergency response services at the time of a life-threatening emergency". Formulated too broadly and in an unqualified way, this proviso creates a danger of unnecessary loss of life. It certainly should not apply to incidental life-threatening occurrences (such as a fall, electrical shock, aspiration of food into the lungs, choking, etc.) Also, if the patient only has an "incurable progressive illness" as defined in AB 1299, then non-dying disabled patients could be potentially denied basic emergency care. - SIB.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

AB 1299 (Daucher - R), Hospice - originally OPPOSE, now NO POSITION
            AB 1299 was a particularly dangerous bill that would have far-reaching consequences detrimental to the safety and lives of the people of California. The proposed change in Hospice Licensure Act would allot hospice care (thus, palliative care only) to the broad category of patients with "incurable progressive disease". People who fall under this definition are by no means dying, can expect many more years of life, and need efficient medical treatment of all intercurrent and concomitant illness.
            Under AB 1299 a patient with rheumatoid arthritis (an incurable progressive illness), unjustly labeled as "hospice patient", would be denied treatment for a pneumonia, a urinary infection, a cardiac arrhythmia, a hip fracture or any other perfectly treatable medical emergency. All efforts should be undertaken to defeat this anti-life bill. - SIB.
        The bill has been revised by the author to eliminate its unacceptable elements discussed above. Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing cancelled by the bill author.

AB 1528 (Cohn - D), Healthy California Act of 2003 - OPPOSE
         Would require "universal" employer participation in ensuring health care for all Californians.  A "uniform benefit package" would be required which would be "universally available without barriers."   Abortion services and family planning services would be integral components.  Parental consent and/or notification for minors would not be possible.  Consider the cumbersome financial burden upon the small and medium-sized business owners. - CRTL.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

AB 1762 (Committee on Budget), Health - OPPOSE
              The state Medical Providers Interim Fund pays Medi-Cal providers for costs incurred prior to September 1 of that year in which a budget has not yet been enacted. This bill would revise the application of that provision to also permit payments from the fund to the providers during the period in which Medi-Cal has a deficiency, thus constituting an appropriation. Medi-Cal pays for abortions, thus this bill constitutes open-ended funding of abortion. Note: Five amendments to this bill were offered to restrict abortion funding but were tabled by Democrat party-line vote. - LPN.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.

AB 1765 (Committee on Budget), Budget Act of 2003 - OPPOSE

            The state budget contains unrestricted Medi-Cal and managed health care abortion funding of  ~$40 million for ~120,000 elective abortions annually. Collateral damage to women, their families and taxpayers includes more ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, premature births and infertility; more serious and costly mental and physical handicaps in subsequent "wanted children"; increased risk of breast cancer; and more post abortion syndrome including post abortion suicides. Many of these taxpayer-funded abortions are committed on minor daughters behind parents' backs to cover up statutory rape and unreported sexual abuse.
            Additionally, ~$60 million goes to the Genetic Disease Testing Fund, a substantial portion of which is a search and destroy program used for the detection of handicapped preborn children with the intent of killing them with late term abortions. Another ~$30 million goes to teen pregnancy programs, most of which are Planned Parenthood-type programs that distribute birth control drugs and devices to minors behind their parents' backs. When these fail, abortion is most often the final solution. - LPN.
        Passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Davis.