California abortion laws

Today, deliberately killing an unborn baby is legal in California

except if:

1. The mother does not consent to the baby’s killing

AND

2. The baby is at least 8 weeks old

 

In this case, the abortion is murder. (1)

 

California statutes also declare some abortions to be “unauthorized.”

 

An abortion is unauthorized in California if:

 

1.     The killer is not the mother of the child

AND

2.      a. The killer does not have a state-approved medical license or nursing certificate to commit          abortions

OR

b. i) The baby, before being killed, was able to survive outside the womb

AND

ii) In the abortionist’s medical judgment, the baby was able to survive outside the womb

         AND

iii) In the abortionist’s medical judgment, the pregnancy posed NO risk to the mother’s physical or mental health (2)

 

However, there is no civil or criminal penalty for an “unauthorized” abortion performed with the consent of the mother.

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California law declares that every woman has a right to abortion and that no state or municipal government may restrict her access to abortion. (3)

 

Minors may undergo an abortion without their parents’ knowledge or consent. A law on the books mandates that a minor girl must either obtain her parents’ permission or go to court and get a judicial bypass before she has an abortion, but the California Supreme Court struck down the law in 1997, citing minor girls’ alleged right to privacy, and the law was never enforced.(4)  The law was repealed in 2023.

 

Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid health care program, covers abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. California law requires that almost all health insurance plans, both public and private, cover abortion without any out-of-pocket cost to the patient.

 

California law requires that, at the request of patients, insurers hide “sensitive” services such as abortions in their communications with policyholders. In other words, children on their parents’ policy can use their insurance to pay for abortions and ask the insurance company to hide it from their parents. (5)

 

California law requires that state-funded universities provide abortions on campus. (6)

 

In November 2022, California voters approved Proposition 1, which added abortion and other unspecified “intimate decisions” to the California state constitution.

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The amendment reads:

 

The state shall not deny or interfere with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, which includes their fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives. This section is intended to further the constitutional right to privacy guaranteed by Section 1, and the constitutional right to not be denied equal protection guaranteed by Section 7. Nothing herein narrows or limits the right to privacy or equal protection.

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In 2023-2024 legislative session, the California legislature is considering multiple bills to protect and expand abortion: